Sunday, December 29, 2019

Lovely Books and Things - 12.29.19

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Receiving a handcrafted gift

2. Being a glutton at Christmas feast

3. Decorating cookies at the Ugly Sweater Christmas Tea Party at Crown & Crumpet



~*~

Library:

Becoming
by Michelle Obama
-Memoir | Goodreads

Talking to Strangers:
What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know
by Malcolm Gladwell
-Psychology | Goodreads

Lost and Wanted
by Nell Freudenberger
-Literary | Goodreads


AND watched: in theatre

Knives Out (2019)
Director/Writer: Rian Johnson
Stars: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas
-Comedy, Crime, Drama | imdb | my rating: 5

A detective investigates the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family.

LOVED the jokes.

~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Happy Christmas 2019


HUG, LAUGH, EAT, REPEAT

~*~

* image source: vintage card (here)

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Lovely Books and Things - 12.22.19

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Warm, cozy and colorful scarves for the season

2. Pannetone - yummy

3. Santa sighting


~*~

Library:

Conviction
by Denise Mina
-Mystery, Thriller | Goodreads

FOR Reese's Book Club December read.


All This Could Be Yours
by Jami Attenberg
-Literary | Goodreads

PART of the Tournament of Books 2020 short list.


AND watched: in theatre

Thousand Pieces of Gold (1990)
Director: Nancy Kelly
Screenplay: Anne Makepeace
Based on book by: Ruthanne Lum McCunn
Stars: Rosalind Chao, Chris Cooper, Michael Paul Chan
-Romance, Western | imdb | my rating: 5

In 1880's China, young Lalu is sold into marriage by her impoverished father. Rather than becoming a bride, Lalu ends up in an Idaho gold-mining town, the property of a saloon owner who renames her China Polly and plans to sell her as entertainment for the locals. Refusing to become a whore, Lalu ultimately finds her own way in this strange country filled with white demons.

LOVED Lalu's independent spirit and how she held true.

The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and Comcast NBCUniversal hosted a special screening at the Roxie Theater as to celebrate the 4K restoration of Asian American film, Thousand Pieces of Gold. This special screening included the San Francisco premiere of the newly restored film and Q&A with Director Nancy Kelly and Producer Kenji Yamamoto.


Listening: Refinery29 Holiday music play list (here)

Liking this one: Christmas Valentine



~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Saturday, December 21, 2019

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper


The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, revelling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us – Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!!

~*~

* image source: yuletide

The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper
-Children, Poetry | Goodreads

Friday, December 20, 2019

National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day 2019

Happy National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day!

PUT on your ugly sweater and snuggle with a cozy book next to a warm fire. Egg nog on the side table is optional ;-)

I am cracking this one open...

A Noël Killing
by M.L. Longworth
-Mystery, Cozy, Christmas, France | Goodreads

Christmastime in the south of France is as beautiful as ever, but when a shady local businessman drops dead in the middle of the festivities, Verlaque and Bonnet must solve the case while keeping the holiday spirit alive

Antoine Verlaque, examining magistrate for the beautiful town of Aix-en-Provence, doesn't like Christmas. The decorations appear in the shops far too early, festive tourists swarm the streets, and his beloved Cours Mirabeau is lined with chalets selling what he regards as tacky trinkets. But his wife and partner Marine Bonnet is determined to make this a Christmas they can both enjoy, beginning with the carol sing at the Cathedral Saint Sauveur, a beautiful service in a packed church.

Just as the holiday cheer is in full swing, a man is poisoned, sending the community into a tailspin. The list of suspects, Verlaque and Bonnet quickly discover, almost fills the church itself, from the visiting vendors at the Christmas fair to the victim’s unhappy wife and his disgruntled business partner. In A Noël Killing, with the help of an ever-watchful young woman named France, the pair must solve the murder while the spirit of the season attempts to warm Verlaque’s stubborn heart.



~*~

* image source: spock and kirk

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where The Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens

Published: 2018
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Genre: Historical, Mystery
Hardback: 384
Rating: 5
Goodreads
Website

First sentence(s):
Marsh is not swamp.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark.

But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens.


My two-bits:

Love how this captured the beauty of the marsh and its inhabitants.

The metaphors, poetry and mystery were engaging.

~*~

* part of Reese's Book Club 2019 (here)

* part of ibc book club (here)

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

Waiting for Tom Hanks
by Kerry Winfrey

Published: 2019
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Cozy
Paperback: 259
Rating: 5
Goodreads
Website

Waiting for Tom Hanks series:
Waiting for Tom Hanks
Not Like the Movies - release: July 7, 2020

First sentence(s):
I just thought I would've met Tom Hanks by now.

Zombie sighting:
"Because," Drew puts his hands on my feet and rubs them. "God, your feet are cold. I have to be on Good Morning USA to talk about the zombie movie I have coming out this week. We actually made it two years ago, but it took forever to find distribution and... this is boring. You don't care."
-chapter 18, page 201


Can a romcom-obssessed romantic finally experience the meet-cute she always dreamed of or will reality never compare to fiction, in this charming debut adult novel from Kerry Winfrey.

Annie Cassidy dreams of being the next Nora Ephron. She spends her days writing screenplays, rewatching Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she could just find her own Tom Hanks—a man who’s sweet, sensitive, and possibly owns a houseboat—her problems would disappear and her life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks is nowhere in sight.

When a movie starts filming in her neighborhood and Annie gets a job on set, it seems like a sign. Then Annie meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky prankster who couldn’t be less like Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet-cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon Annie finds herself sharing some classic rom-com moments with Drew. Her Tom Hanks can’t be an actor who’s leaving town in a matter of days...can he?


My two-bits:

Super cozy and cute romance that touches on all the Ephron-like tropes. Got my fill of chuckles and "ouch" moments.


Monday, December 16, 2019

Happy Birthday Jane Austen!

Happy 244th Birthday, Jane!

Going to flip through this newbie...

Dress in the Age of Jane Austen:
Regency Fashion
by Hilary Davidson
-History, Fashion, Jane Austen | Goodreads
Just released: November 2019

This lively book reveals the clothing and fashion of the world depicted in Jane Austen’s beloved books, focusing on the long Regency between the years 1795 and 1825. During this period, accelerated change saw Britain’s turbulent entry into the modern age, and clothing reflected these transformations. Starting with the intimate perspective of clothing the self, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen moves outward through the social and cultural spheres of home, village, countryside, and cities, and into the wider national and global realms, exploring the varied ways people dressed to inhabit these environments. Jane Austen’s famously observant fictional writings, as well as her letters, provide the entry point for examining the Regency age’s rich complexity of fashion, dress, and textiles for men and women in their contemporary contexts.

Lavishly illustrated with paintings, drawings, historic garments, and fashion plates—including many previously unpublished images—this authoritative yet accessible book will help readers visualize the external selves of Austen’s immortal characters as clearly as she wrote of their internal ones. The result is an enhanced understanding of Austen’s work and time, and also of the history of one of Britain’s most distinctive fashion eras.


~*~

* image source: jane austen shadow box

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Lovely Books and Things - 12.15.19

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Christmas Cards

2. Running holiday related errands

3. Checking out the various Christmas Tree lights around town

Christmas Tree
Castro district, San Francisco

~*~

Library:

Waiting for Tom Hanks
by Kerry Winfrey
-Romance, Cozy | Goodreads


We Met in December
by Rosie Curtis
-Romance, Christmas | Goodreads


AND watched: in theatre

63 Up (2019)
Director: Michael Apted
-Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.



1917 (2019)
Director/Writer: Sam Mendes
Writer: Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Stars: Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong
-Drama, War | imdb | my rating: 5

Two young British privates during the First World War are given an impossible mission: deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, and one of the soldier's brothers, from walking straight into a deadly trap.



Christmas Tree
Macy's, San Francisco

~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Saturday, December 14, 2019

The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley

The Clergyman's Wife
by Molly Greeley

Published: December 2019
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Historial, Romance, Jane Austen theme
Paperback: 304
Rating: 5
Excerpt
Goodreads
Website

First sentence(s):
Mr. Collins walks like a man who has never become comfortable with his height: his shoulders hunched, his neck thrust forward.

Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, is the respectable wife of Hunsford’s vicar, and sees to her duties by rote: keeping house, caring for their adorable daughter, visiting parishioners, and patiently tolerating the lectures of her awkward husband and his condescending patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Intelligent, pragmatic, and anxious to escape the shame of spinsterhood, Charlotte chose this life, an inevitable one so socially acceptable that its quietness threatens to overwhelm her. Then she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Travis, a local farmer and tenant of Lady Catherine.

In Mr. Travis’ company, Charlotte feels appreciated, heard, and seen. For the first time in her life, Charlotte begins to understand emotional intimacy and its effect on the heart—and how breakable that heart can be. With her sensible nature confronted, and her own future about to take a turn, Charlotte must now question the role of love and passion in a woman’s life, and whether they truly matter for a clergyman’s wife.


My two-bits:

Loved how this story took a slight turn from what I was expecting. Although, most of the story is telling of the times for women's lives.

I liked getting Charlotte's perspective and introspection of her past and present situations in regards to her relationships and love life.

It was a treat to see bits of Darcy and his Elizabeth.

~*~

* Part of blog tour (schedule)

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Blog All About It: Twinkle


~*~

* image source: Santa Claus

* part of the Blog All About It Challenge (here)

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Happy Release: The Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greeley

The Clergyman's Wife
A Pride and Prejudice Novel
by Molly Greeley
-Historical, Romance, Jane Austen related | Goodreads
Release date: December 3, 2019

Charlotte Collins, nee Lucas, is the respectable wife of Hunsford’s vicar, and sees to her duties by rote: keeping house, caring for their adorable daughter, visiting parishioners, and patiently tolerating the lectures of her awkward husband and his condescending patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Intelligent, pragmatic, and anxious to escape the shame of spinsterhood, Charlotte chose this life, an inevitable one so socially acceptable that its quietness threatens to overwhelm her. Then she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Travis, a local farmer and tenant of Lady Catherine..

In Mr. Travis’ company, Charlotte feels appreciated, heard, and seen. For the first time in her life, Charlotte begins to understand emotional intimacy and its effect on the heart—and how breakable that heart can be. With her sensible nature confronted, and her own future about to take a turn, Charlotte must now question the role of love and passion in a woman’s life, and whether they truly matter for a clergyman’s wife.


Excerpt:

Prologue


Autumn

Mr. Collins walks like a man who has never become comfortable with his height: his shoulders hunched, his neck thrust forward. His legs cross great stretches of ground with a single stride. I see him as I pass the bedroom window, and for a moment I am arrested, my lungs squeezing painfully under my ribs, the pads of my fingers pressed against the cool glass. The next moment, I am moving down the stairs, holding my hem above my ankles. When I push open the front door and step out into the lane, I raise my eyes and find Mr. Collins only a few feet distant.

Mr. Collins sees me and lifts his hat. His brow is damp with the exertion of walking and his expression is one of mingled anticipation and wariness. Seeing it, the tightness in my chest dissipates. Later, when I have time to reflect, I will perhaps wonder how it is possible to simultaneously want something so much and so little, but in the moment before Mr. Collins speaks, as I step toward him through the fallen leaves, I am awash in calm.

On the morning of my wedding, my mother dismisses the maid and helps me to dress herself. Lady Lucas is not a woman prone to excessive displays of emotion, but this morning her eyes are damp and her fingers tremble as she smooths the sleeves of my gown. It is only my best muslin, though newly trimmed at the bodice with lace from one of my mother’s old evening dresses. My father went to town the other day, returning with a few cupped hothouse roses, only just bloomed, to tuck into my hair this morning. He offered them to me, his face pink and pleased, and they were so lovely, so evocative of life and warmth even as winter grayed and chilled the landscape outside, that even my mother did not complain about the expense.

“Very pretty,” my mother says now, and I feel my breath catch and hold behind my breastbone. I cannot recall having heard those particular words from her since I was a small child. I look at my reflection in the glass and there see the same faults—nose too large, chin too sharp, eyes too close together—that I have heard my mother bemoan since it became apparent, when I was about fourteen, that my looks were not going to improve as I grew older. But the flowers in my hair make me appear younger, I think, than my twenty-seven years; I look like a bride. And when I look into my mother’s face now, I find nothing but sincerity.

My mother blinks too quickly and turns away from me. “We should go down,” she says. She makes for the door, then pauses, turning slowly to face me again. “I wish you every happiness,” she says, sounding as though she is speaking around something lodged in her throat. “You have made a very eligible match.” I nod, feeling my own throat close off in response, a sensation of helpless choking.

~*~

The Clergyman's Wife Blog Tour schedule:

December 2: From Pemberly to Milton: Guest post

December 3: Vesper's Place: Review

December 3: vvb32reads: Spotlight/excerpt

December 4: My Jane Austen Book Club: Guest post

December 4: Confessions of a Book Addict: Excerpt, Guest post

December 5: More Agreeably Engaged: Excerpt, Guest post

December 5: Babblings of a Bookworm: Excerpt

December 6: Laura's Reviews: Review

December 7: Scuffed Slippers and Wormy Books: Review, Excerpt

December 8: My Vices and Weaknesses: Excerpt, Guest post

December 9: Living Read Girl: Review

December 10: The Calico Critic: Excerpt

December 11: Austenesque Reviews: Review

December 12: So Little Time...: Excerpt, Guest post, giveaway

December 13: cozynookbks: Review

December 14: My Love for Jane Austen: Guest post, Giveaway

December 14: vvb32reads: Review

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Lovely Books and Things - 12.1.19

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Christmas card preparations

2. Starting out the holiday season with a musical performance, A Winter Gift by Legends of the Celtic Harp

3. Embarcadero Center Lighting Ceremony and Fireworks - view from behind the ice skating show was spectacular


~*~

Bought:

The Blood Strand
(Faroes #1)
by Chris Ould
-Mystery, Faroe Islands, Denmark | Goodreads

FOR my face-to-face group, Foreign Mystery Book Club.

The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
-Dystopia, Feminism | Goodreads

WANT to catch up with this dystopia world.


Author event:


Green Apple Books in the Park hosted Liska Jacobs: In Conversation with Rita Bullwinkel.

The Worst Kind of Want
by Liska Jacobs
-Literary, Italy | Goodreads

Belly Up
by Rita Bullwinkel
-SciFi, Fantasy, Short Stories | Goodreads


For Review:

The Clergyman's Wife
A Pride and Prejudice Novel
by Molly Greeley
-Historical, Romance, Jane Austen-theme
courtesy of tour -Thanks! | Goodreads



Oh by gosh by jolly… It's time for mistletoe and holly...
(from song Mistletoe And Holly by Frank Sinatra)

~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Rabbit rabbit: Beastars

Beastars
tv series, season 2 (11 episodes)
based on manga by: Paru Itagaki
-Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Japanese | Goodreads | imdb | my rating: 5

The story takes place in a world of modern, civilized, anthropomorphic animals with a cultural divide between the carnivores and herbivores. The series takes its name from the in-universe rank of Beastar, an individual of great talent, service, and notoriety. Legoshi, a large gray wolf, is a timid and quiet student of Cherryton Academy where he lives in a dorm with several other carnivorous students including his outgoing Labrador friend, Jack. As a member of the school's drama club, Legoshi works as a stagehand and supports the actors of the club headed by the star pupil Louis, a red deer. Out of nowhere, Tem the alpaca is brutally murdered and devoured in the night setting a wave of unease and distrust between the herbivore and carnivore students. At the same time, Legoshi has a fateful encounter with Haru, a small dwarf rabbit, and begins developing complex feelings for her.



My two-bits:
After watching the first 7 episodes, I am hooked.

Mind bending thoughts of diversity, bullying, love, etc. are tackled.

Loving the relationship development between the wolf and rabbit.

~*~

* Legosi and Haru image from Netflix site. FYI this anime is schedule to stream on Netflix soon.

* a new meme: first of the month with something rabbit themed (rabbit rabbit)
 
Imagination Designs
Images from: Lovelytocu