Saturday, June 16, 2018

Lovely Books and Things - 6.16.18

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

Linking up with:
Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. Brought the kid home from college for summer break.

2. Attending the kid's friend's graduation festivities from UC Santa Cruz.

3. Treated to an appearance and Q&A with director/actor Tommy Wiseau before a screening of The Room

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Bought:

Grantchester
Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death
by James Runcie
-Mystery, Thriller
Amazon | Goodreads

WANTED to read this before getting into the tv version.


Library:

The Favorite Sister
by Jessica Knoll
-Mystery, Thriller
Amazon | Goodreads

PART of the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge 2018 (here).


For Review:

Dead If You Don't
by Peter James
-Mystery, Thriller
courtesy of Wunderkind -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads

THIS is #14 in the Roy Grace series. Curious to see how it goes.


Unboxing:


A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza
-Literary, Family, India, Muslim
Amazon | Goodreads

GOT this to celebrate the first novel from Sarah Jessica Parker’s new imprint, SJP for Hogarth. I like the pre-order offer of swag with this edition.


AND watched: in theatre - part of the SF Film Documentary Festival (here)

Unfractured (2018)
Director: Chanda Chevannes
-Documentary, Environmental | imdb | my rating: 5

A triumphant documentary about resistance, UNFRACTURED follows introspective biologist and mother Sandra Steingraber as she reinvents herself as an outspoken activist.

LEARNED about the activist activity on the topic of the historic fight against fracking in New York state. A Q&A with the director and local activists who are part of the California fight.

Mole Man (2017)
Director: Guy Fiorita
Writer: Cassidy Hartmann (story consultant)
-Documentary, Autism | imdb | my rating: 5

MOLE MAN follows RON, a 66-year-old autistic man who has spent the last five decades building a 50-room structure in his parents' backyard. Using no nails or mortar, Ron instead creates perfectly balanced structures from scavenged materials he finds in the woods outside his Western Pennsylvania home. When Ron's father passes away, leaving him living alone with his 90-year-old mother, Ron's siblings are left to figure out what's best for Ron - who has never been officially diagnosed with autism - when his mother can no longer care for him. In an effort to find the money to keep Ron in his home, his friends team up in search of a mythical mansion Ron insists lays abandoned in the forest. But will they be able to find it? And, more importantly, does it even exist? This is the story of an extraordinary life, a family, and the beauty of thinking differently.

Q&A with the director gave a little more insight and update on Ron and his situation. The film presents some history of autism in relation to its affect on family.


AND watched: in theatre

Hereditary (2018)
Director/Writer: Ari Aster
Stars: Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff
-Drama, Horror, Mystery | imdb | my rating: 4

After the family matriarch passes away, a grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences, and begin to unravel dark secrets.

A couple shockers in an otherwise slow moving horror tales that delivers in the end. Oh boy!


AND watched: on DVD

An Autumn Afternoon (1964)
Sanma no aji (original title)
Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Screenplay: Kôgo Noda, Yasujirô Ozu
Stars: Chishû Ryû, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada
-Drama, Japan | imdb | my rating: 5

An aging widower arranges a marriage for his only daughter.

SAD but beautiful story of parent/daughter relation in Japan in the 1960's.

Loving Vincent (2017)
Director/Writers: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
Writer: Jacek Dehnel
Stars: Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Robert Gulaczyk
-Animation, Biography, Crime | imdb | my rating: 4
Oscar 2018 nominee

In a story depicted in oil painted animation, a young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.

THE story told by way of paintings was beautifully done. Loved how they incorporated Van Gogh's actual works and subjects.

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

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