Happy Earth Day

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Scattered All Over the Earth
by Yōko Tawada
translated by Margaret Mitsutani
SciFi, Climate, Japan | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as “the land of sushi.” Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian): “homemade language. no country to stay in. three countries I experienced. insufficient space in brain. so made new language. homemade language.” As she searches for anyone who can still speak her mother tongue, Hiruko soon makes new friends. Her troupe travels to France, encountering an umami cooking competition; a dead whale; an ultra-nationalist named Breivik; unrequited love; Kakuzo robots; red herrings; uranium; an Andalusian matador. Episodic and mesmerizing scenes flash vividly along, and soon they’re all next off to Stockholm.

Jeepney (2013)
Director: Esy Casey
Documentary, History, Philippines | imdb

JEEPNEY visualizes the richly diverse cultural and social climate of the Philippines through its most popular form of mass transportation: vividly decorated ex-WWII military jeeps. The film follows jeepney artists, drivers, and passengers, whose stories take place amidst nationwide protest against oil price hikes that pressure drivers to work overseas to earn a living, far from their homes for years at a time. Lavishly shot and cut to the rhythm of the streets, JEEPNEY provides an enticing vehicle through which the rippling effects of globalization can be felt.

Explore: Kyoto

Explore The World 2022
through books, films, etc. April: Kyoto

READ:

The Lady and the Monk:
Four Seasons in Kyoto
by Pico Iyer
Memoir, Travel, Japan | Published: 1991 | Goodreads
When Pico Iyer decided to go to Kyoto and live in a monastery, he did so to learn about Zen Buddhism from the inside, to get to know Kyoto, one of the loveliest old cities in the world, and to find out something about Japanese culture today -- not the world of businessmen and production lines, but the traditional world of changing seasons and the silence of temples, of the images woven through literature, of the lunar Japan that still lives on behind the rising sun of geopolitical power.

All this he did. And then he met Sachiko.

Vivacious, attractive, thoroughly educated, speaking English enthusiastically if eccentrically, the wife of a Japanese "salaryman" who seldom left the office before 10 P.M., Sachiko was as conversant with tea ceremony and classical Japanese literature as with rock music, Goethe, and Vivaldi. With the lightness of touch that made Video Night in Kathmandu so captivating, Pico Iyer fashions from their relationship a marvelously ironic yet heartfelt book that is at once a portrait of cross-cultural infatuation -- and misunderstanding -- and a delightfully fresh way of seeing both the old Japan and the very new.

AUDIOBOOK:

Cutting Back
My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto
by Leslie Buck
Memoir, Japan | Published: 2017 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
At thirty-five, Leslie Buck made an impulsive decision to put her personal life on hold to pursue her passion. Leaving behind a full life of friends, love, and professional security, she became the first American woman to learn pruning from one of the most storied landscaping companies in Kyoto. Cutting Back recounts Buck’s bold journey and the revelations she has along the way. During her apprenticeship in Japan, she learns that the best Kyoto gardens look so natural they appear untouched by human hands, even though her crew spends hours meticulously cleaning every pebble in the streams. She is taught how to bring nature’s essence into a garden scene, how to design with native plants, and how to subtly direct a visitor through a landscape. But she learns the most important lessons from her fellow gardeners: how to balance strength with grace, seriousness with humor, and technique with heart.

WATCH:

The Makioka Sisters (1983)
Original title: Sasameyuki
Director/Writer: Kon Ichikawa
Writer: Shin'ya Hidaka
Based on book by: Jun'ichirô Tanizaki
Stars: Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Yûko Kotegawa, Keiko Kishi
Drama, Romance, Japan | imdb | my rating: 5
This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.

FLIP THROUGH:

Soul of Kyoto:
A Guide to 30 Exceptional Experiences
by Thierry Teyssier
Travel, Guide, Japan | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

VISIT: someday...

Kyoto Okazaki TSUTAYA BOOKS
(details)
Kyoto, a city that breathes culture and history,
KYOTO OKAZAKI TSUTAYA BOOKS is a bookstore
dedicated to inspire and bring to you,
'things that move the soul'.

While we call ourselves a bookstore, our store is more than just books.
Our store features locally-made handcrafted goods and accessories,
a Starbucks Book&Café,
a Rent-a-Bike service for visitors to enjoy sightseeing in Kyoto,
a Café & Restaurant inspired by locally produced seasonal ingredients,
plus many more. The store is filled with many gems
to provide each and everyone a chance encounter with
'things that move the soul'.

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* part of Explore the World (here)

It's a clone, my dude

Dual (2022)
Director/Writer: Riley Stearns
Stars: Karen Gillan, Aaron Paul
SciFi, Thriller | imdb | my rating: 4

A woman opts for a cloning procedure after she receives a terminal diagnosis but when she recovers her attempts to have her clone decommissioned fail, leading to a court-mandated duel to the death.

The Echo Wife
by Sarah Gailey
SciFi, Thriller | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.

Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

Lovely Books and Things - 4.17.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

Linking up with:
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. The return of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan town
2. Searching for Louise Penny books at used book stores
3. Funny signs

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Library: audiobook

The Book of Mother
by Violaine Huisman
translated by Leslie Camhi
Contemporary, Mental Health, France | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

The Verifiers
by Jane Pek
Mystery, Thriller | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
Library:

Along for the Ride
by Sarah Dessen
YA, Romance | Published: 2009 | Goodreads
for Netflix book club

Freebies: from Free Little Library

Orly Farm
by Anthony Trollope
Classics, Victorian | Published: 1861 | Goodreads

Lucky
by Marissa Stapley
Thriller, Canada | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
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AND watched: virtual theatre

Turning Red (2022)
Director/Writer: Domee Shi
Writers: Julia Cho, Sarah Streicher
Stars: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh
Animation, Adventure, Comedy | imdb | my rating: 5

A 13-year-old girl named Meilin turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited.

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* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Eggs and Bunnies

Chocolate Eggs at One65
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The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
by DuBose Heyward
illustrated by Marjorie Flack
Classics, Childrens | Published: 2967 (first 1939) | Goodreads
The country bunny is a lady, and she attains the exalted position of Easter Bunny in spite of her responsibilities as the mother of twenty-one children. That the story ends with success and a reward is, of course, as every child would wish.

Like so many other classic stories for children, this one grew from being told and retold to a child for many years. That is why Mr. Heyward gives credit on the title-page to his eight-year-old daughter, Jenifer.

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Egg displayed at Antique store
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The Gardens of Bunny Mellon
by Linda Jane Holden
photos by Roger Foley
Gardening | Published: 2018 | Goodreads
Throughout her long and storied life, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s greatest passion was garden design. She and her husband, Paul Mellon, one of the wealthiest men in America, maintained homes in New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Antigua, and Upperville, Virginia, and she designed the gardens at all of them. She also designed gardens for some of her dearest friends, including the Rose Garden and the East Garden at the White House, at the request of President Kennedy, and the gardens at both the Paris home and the château of couturier Hubert de Givenchy. All of these gardens are featured in The Gardens of Bunny Mellon, illustrated with Mellon’s own garden plans, sketches, and watercolors, as well as with archival photographs and specially commissioned photographs of Oak Spring, the Mellon estate in Upperville. Author Linda Holden’s text is based on extensive interviews with Mellon before her death in 2014.

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Eggs in the neighborhood ~*~

Cursed Bunny
by Bora Chung
translated by Anton Hurby
Short Stories, Horror, Korea | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
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