My Weekly Books and Films Update
Linking up with:
Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)
Got delayed in posting this last weekend. So, below reflects two weeks worth. As you will see certain purchases were influenced by events attended.
I started entering books read with ratings into Goodreads from my reading logs that date back to 2006. This was the year when I started getting serious with reading and making notations of the books. In working with the lists it was fun to see which I remembered and which I accidentally re-read.
Bought:
Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco, hosted a reading, signing and Q&A with Jeff VanderMeer for his latest release of Borne. Started out with a bird diary. Borne inspired by experience of growing up in Fiji and environmental issues.
Don't remember why, but Jeff wanted the crowd to say...
or can they?
Maybe I will know why after reading the book.
by Jeff VanderMeer
-Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
THIS will be my first VanderMeer read.
by Jeff VanderMeer
-Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
FOUND this in the used book section. It is the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy which is the Winner of the 2015 Nebula Award.
by Jeff VanderMeer
-Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
GOT this with the first one above. It is the third book in the trilogy. Gotta search for the second, Authority.
by Alan Bennett
-Short Stories, England
Amazon | Goodreads
Also found this in the used section while looking for Smut. Due to the theatre production I mentioned below, I was taken with Alan's style.
For Review:
by Caroline George
-YA
Release date: June 30, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
I am curious about the end of the world scenario in this one.
by Julie A. Richman
-New Adult, Romance
courtesy of Romance Read-of-the-Month Club -Thanks!
BarnesNoble | Goodreads
I have been accumulating some beefcake reading with from this club. But, have not yet had a chance to dip into any. I definitely will start in June!
by Lara Vapnyar
-Contemporary Fiction, Russia
courtesy of Blogging for Books - Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
THE Jane Austen mention in the description caught my eye for this one along with the idea of virtual graves.
UNBOXING:
OwlCrate is a subscription service that sends you magical monthly boxes tailored to a chosen theme. Each OwlCrate will contain one new Young Adult novel, as well as 3-5 other bookish treats to help you get your nerd on. @owlcrate
MAY Box includes:
theme: Comic Explosion
- Owlcrate spoiler card with comic book style page
- Owlcrate buttons - comic book theme
- Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
- Signed bookplate, letter and art piece from author
- Batman - FunkoPop
- Pen (6-colored) comic book theme from Ooly
- Wonder Woman - Dio Candle Company
- Afar (first chapter sampler) from Image Comics
- Coffee candies from Kafe Zing
by Francesca Zappia
-YA
Release date: May 30, 2017
Amazon | Goodreads
Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble.
Scott Westerfeld’s Afterworlds meets Nimona in this novel about art, fandom, and finding the courage to be yourself. Features illustrations by the author throughout. Perfect for readers of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, this is the second novel by the acclaimed author of Made You Up.
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, smart, and friendless. Online, Eliza is Lady Constellation, the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community. Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart. With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums, this uniquely formatted book will appeal to fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl.
AND watched: in theatre (live)
An Unseemly Story
(The Greening Of Mrs. Donaldson)
Director: Amy Kossow
Producer: HARLYN | Associate Producers: Bruce Colman, Shelly Osborne
Based on book: Smut: Stories by Alan Bennett
-Comedy | Zspace | my rating: 5
One of England’s finest and most loved writers, Alan Bennett, explores the uncomfortable and tragicomic gap between people’s public appearance and their private desires in this tender and surprising story. In The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson, a recently bereaved widow finds interesting ways to supplement her income by performing as a patient for medical students, and renting out her spare room. Quiet, middle-class, and middle-aged, Mrs. Donaldson will soon discover that she rather enjoys role-play at the hospital, and the irregular and startling entertainment provided by her tenants.A master storyteller dissects a very English form of secrecy with this story of the unexpected in otherwise apparently ordinary lives.
THE interesting thing about this production is that it is presented as a short story (in action) versus a play. So the dialogue includes what you would read in the short story.
AND watched: in theatre
Director/Writer: Azazel Jacobs
Starring: Debra Winger, Tracy Letts, Aidan Gillen
-Comedy | imdb | my rating: 4
Debra Winger and Tracy Letts play a long-married, dispassionate couple who are both in the midst of serious affairs. But on the brink of calling it quits, a spark between them suddenly reignites, leading them into an impulsive romance.
Not what I expected, but very interesting. Lust versus love. Non-traditional relationships.
AND watching: on Hulu
Creator: Bruce Miller
Based on book by: Margaret Atwood
Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, Joseph Fiennes
-Drama, SciFi | imdb | my rating: 5
Netflix trivia: Margaret Atwood, the book's author, makes a cameo as an Aunt in Episode 1. She is the one who slaps Offred when she is reluctant to join in the group shaming circle.
Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship.
Just as chilling as the book with a great cast.
* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently
:-)
