Thursday, June 30, 2022

Reading Wrap Up: June 2022

READING WRAP UP
(books from the tbr)
Out of the Blue
by Jason June
Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: May 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
breakups, shakeups, fun times
adorable couple

Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the monthlong sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder--or fail and remain stuck on land forever. Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with: after all, humans are disgusting. They've pollluted the planet so much that there's a floating island of trash that's literally the size of a country.

In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together and Crest's pespective on humans begins to change, they'll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings...


A Little Bit Country
by Brian D. Kennedy
YA, Romance, Music, LGBTQ | Published: June 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
like a classic country love song with cute fuzzies
another adorable couple

Emmett Maguire wants to be country music’s biggest gay superstar – a far reach when you’re seventeen and living in Illinois. But for now, he’s happy to do the next best thing: Stay with his aunt in Jackson Hollow, Tennessee, for the summer and perform at the amusement park owned by his idol, country legend Wanda Jean Stubbs.

Luke Barnes hates country music. As the grandson of Verna Rose, the disgraced singer who had a famous falling out with Wanda Jean, Luke knows how much pain country music has brought his family. But when his mom’s medical bills start piling up, he takes a job at the last place he wants: a restaurant at Wanda World.

Neither boy is looking for romance, but sparks fly when they meet – and soon they’re inseparable. Until a long-lost secret about Verna and Wanda comes to light, threatening to unravel everything.

Will Emmett and Luke be able get past the truths they discover…or will their relationship go down in history as just another Sad Country Love Song?


Sunday, June 26, 2022

Lovely Books and Things - 6.26.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update


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

~*~


HAPPY THINGS:

1. Staying outside late on the summer solstice day
2. Found a new (to me) gelato place, Gelato Classico (here) - yummy spumoni
3. Spotted a gold frog at an art gallery window in San Francisco North Beach aka little Italy
~*~

Bought:
The House in the Cerulean Sea
by T.J. Klune
Fantasy, LGBTQ | Published: 2020 | Goodreads

Library: audiobook
A Flicker in the Dark
by Stacy Willingham
Thriller, Mystery | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Library:
Rainbow Rainbow
by Lydia Conklin
Short Stories, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
For Review:
A Little Bit Country
by Brian D. Kennedy
YA, Romance, Music, LGBTQ | Published: June 2022 | Goodreads
courtesy of publisher -Thanks!

~*~

Virtual Author event: hosted by Book Passage
See archive of this (here)
The Catch
by Alison Fairbrother
Literary, Coming of Age | Published: 2022 | Goodreads


Virtual Author event: hosted by Macmillan

Hester
by Laurie Lico Albanese
Historical, Retelling, Scotland | Published: October 2022 | Goodreads


~*~

AND watched: San Francisco Opera
Dream of the Red Chamber (2022)
Sung in English with English and Chinese supertitles)
Director: Stan Lai
Conductor: Darrell Ang

Based on book:
Dream of the Red Chamber
by Cao Xueqin
Classic, Historical, Romance, China | Published: 1791 | Goodreads

~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Friday, June 24, 2022

It's... Midsommar

A place to visit with a bit of folklore horror...
The Ritual
by Adam Nevill
Horror, Paranormal | Published: 2011 | Goodreads

Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.

Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artifacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.


and then watch:
The Ritual (2017)
Director: David Bruckner
Writer: Joe Barton
Based on book by: Adam Nevill
Stars: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton
Horror, Mystery, Thriller | imdb

A group of old college friends reunite for a trip to a forest in Sweden, Northern Europe, but encounter a menacing presence there stalking them.

~*~

* image source header: Yuko Higuchi artwork for film Midsommar directed by Ari Aster (here)

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Jane in Summer

~*~
Lovely image spotted in the JASNA-NC June newsletter

~*~
Queering the Work of Jane Austen is Nothing New
by Devoney Looser
an article in The Atlantic (here)


~*~
Jane Austen July
July 1-31, 2022
hosted by Booktubers:
Spinster's Library (here)
Blatantly Bookish (here)
Books and Things (here)

~*~
Virtual Jane Con 2022
July 16-17, 2022 (details)

~*~
Austen in August 2022
August 1-30, 2022 hosted by Roofbeam Reader (details)

~*~
Current binge...
Sanditon (2019)
season 1 Creator: Andrew Davies
Based on book by: Jane Austen
Stars: Rose Williams, Theo James
Drama, Romance, Jane Austen | imdb

About Charlotte Heywood, a spirited and impulsive woman, who moves from her rural home to Sanditon, a fishing village attempting to reinvent itself as a seaside resort.

~*~

* header image source: from Emma (2020) film
* header image source June: Happy Pride, Jane from JASNA-NC newsletter
* header image source July: Persuasion by Jane Austen cover by Vintage Classics, 2007)
* part of Jane-austenesque 2022 (here)

Monday, June 20, 2022

Explore: Hawaii

Explore The World 2022
through books, films, etc.
June: Hawaii

AUDIOBOOK:

Bones of Hilo
by Eric Redman
Mystery, Hawaii | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4

A young, inexperienced detective from the wet, working-class side of Hawaii's Big Island, Kawika Wong faces an uphill battle to gain the respect of his more seasoned colleagues. And he has the chance of a lifetime when Ralph Fortunato, the Mainland developer of an unpopular resort on the island's tourist side, is found murdered on a luxury golf course, an ancient Hawaiian spear driven through his heart.

With the other detectives desperately trying to solve another string of grisly killings, Captain Terry Tanaka has no choice but to send Kawika to investigate. As Kawika joins forces with his father and girlfriend to help read the signs and make sense of the ritualistic murder scene, they uncover a cache of secrets reaching far back to the Island's ancient past. And the journalist who found the body has her own theories about Fortunato's demise--but do they line up with the evidence?

On a perilous journey that stretches from the Big Island to Washington State and back, Kawika finds danger at every turn. But he still has much to learn about Hawaii, and about the rugged terrain of the North Cascades. And he'd better learn it fast, because his instincts may not be enough to catch a killer who's closing in even faster.


WATCH:

Patrick Makuakāne’s Nā Lei Hulu dancers performance
at the Yerba Buena Gardens festival

PUZZLE:

Ravensburger puzzle with tropical scene

VISIT: someday...

da Shop: books + curiosities
local + independent + community (details)
3565 Harding Ave
Honolulu, Hawai'i

~*~

* part of Explore the World (here)

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Lovely Books and Things - 6.19.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update


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

~*~


HAPPY THINGS:

1. Yerba Buena Gardens free outdoor summer Saturday shows (here)
2. Cello/vocal performance by Theresa Wong, artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Asian Art museum (here)
3. Stroll through Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden
~*~

Library: audiobook
The Cruelest Month
by Louise Penny
Mystery, Canada | Published: 2007 | Goodreads


Mustique Island
by Sarah McCoy
Historical, 1970s, Women's Fiction | Published: 2022 | Goodreads


For Review:
In Our Blood
by Caitlin Billings
Memoir, Mental Health, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

~*~

Virtual Author event: hosted by Book Passage
See archive of this (here)
Just by Looking at Him
by Ryan O'Connell
Contemporary, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: hosted by Green Apple Books
Check out their calendar for future free author events (here)
See archive of this (here)
Cult Classic
by Sloane Crosly
Mystery, Thriller, Magical Realism | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: hosted by A Wonderful World Book Club from The Human Impacts Institute
See archive of this (here)
Things You Can Do:
How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste

by Eduardo García
illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows
Nonfiction, Science, Environment | Published: 2022 | Goodreads


~*~

AND watched: theatre
Brian and Charles (2022)
Director: Jim Archer
Writer: David Earl, Chris Hayward
Stars: David Earl, Chris Hayward, Louise Brealey
Comedy | imdb | my rating: 5
ahhh, the imagination

After a particularly harsh winter Brian goes into a deep depression; completely isolated and with no one to talk to, Brian does what any sane person would do when faced with such a melancholic situation. He builds a robot.

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Happy release: A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy

A Little Bit Country
by Brian D. Kennedy
YA, Romance, Music, LGBTQ | Published: June 2022 | Goodreads

Emmett Maguire wants to be country music’s biggest gay superstar – a far reach when you’re seventeen and living in Illinois. But for now, he’s happy to do the next best thing: Stay with his aunt in Jackson Hollow, Tennessee, for the summer and perform at the amusement park owned by his idol, country legend Wanda Jean Stubbs.

Luke Barnes hates country music. As the grandson of Verna Rose, the disgraced singer who had a famous falling out with Wanda Jean, Luke knows how much pain country music has brought his family. But when his mom’s medical bills start piling up, he takes a job at the last place he wants: a restaurant at Wanda World.

Neither boy is looking for romance, but sparks fly when they meet – and soon they’re inseparable. Until a long-lost secret about Verna and Wanda comes to light, threatening to unravel everything.

Will Emmett and Luke be able get past the truths they discover…or will their relationship go down in history as just another Sad Country Love Song?


First sentence(s):
Here’s the thing about writing a good country song: It’s really fricking hard. For starters, you can’t swear. Not if you want radio play. But I don’t give a “ship” about that. For me, the bigger challenge is coming up with something original to say. Anyone can put words to music, but how do you make those words sound new? I mean, the world’s only big enough for so many songs about long dirt roads, cheating spouses, and drinking enough six-packs of cheap beer to crash your pontoon.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Happy release: Out of the Blue by Jason June

Out of the Blue
by Jason June
Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: May 2022 | Goodreads

Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the monthlong sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder--or fail and remain stuck on land forever. Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with: after all, humans are disgusting. They've pollluted the planet so much that there's a floating island of trash that's literally the size of a country.

In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together and Crest's pespective on humans begins to change, they'll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings...


First sentence(s):
There are a surprising number of similarities between being a lifeguard and being a movie director. Both sit in a labeled chair to watch everything in their surroundings, their eyes squint just as hard thanks to glaring sun or glaring studio lights, and yelling “CUT THAT OUT!” to kids splashing day-drinking moms isn’t all that different from yelling “CUT!” to actors.

Monday, June 13, 2022

Books and Bag: A Bit of Color

Books and Bag
doing some dreaming
a designer bag and books to fill it


~*~


Rainbow Rainbow
by Lydia Conklin
Short Stories, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

A fearless collection of stories that celebrate the humor, darkness, and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that's not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception, and queer joy.

In this delightful debut collection of prize-winning stories, queer, gender-nonconforming, and trans characters struggle to find love and forgiveness, despite their sometimes comic, sometimes tragic mistakes.

In one story, a young lesbian tries to have a baby with her lover using an unprofessional sperm donor and a high-powered, rainbow-colored cocktail. In another, a fifth-grader explores gender identity by dressing as an ox—instead of a matriarch—for a class Oregon Trail reenactment. Meanwhile a nonbinary person on the eve of top surgery dangerously experiments with an open relationship during the height of the COVID crisis.

With insight and compassion, debut author Lydia Conklin takes their readers to a meeting of a queer feminist book club and to a convention for trans teenagers, revealing both the dark and lovable sides of their characters. The stories in Rainbow Rainbow will make you laugh and wince, sometimes at the same time.


~*~


* image source: bag -Christian Dior, Dior Vibe Bowling Bags

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Lovely Books and Things - 6.11.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update


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

~*~


HAPPY THINGS:

1. Egg and cheese on a Buttermilk Malt Biscuit from Bazaar Cafe - Brews. Bundts. Biscuits. (and banjos …) (here)
2. Gifted an Inspector Gamache themed coffee from Brome Lake Books, Knowlton, Quebec, Canada (here) one of the towns that inspired Three Pines in Louise Penny's Gamache series. My reading buddy for this series happened to be in that area while traveling.
3. Finished fun puzzle image - Sugar Daddy by Pezel Puzzles (photo by Tori Annesley)
~*~

Bought:
The Brutal Telling
by Louise Penny
Mystery, Canada | Published: 2009 | Goodreads


Library: audiobook
Bones of Hilo
by Eric Redman
Mystery, Hawaii | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

Library:
Violets
by Kyung-sook Shin
translated by Anton Hur
LGBTQ, Historical, Korea | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

For Review:
Out of the Blue
by Jason June
Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: May 2022 | Goodreads
courtesy of publisher -Thanks!
yes, that's a merman ;-)

~*~

In-store Author event: hosted by Books Inc., Opera Plaza
Happy-Go-Lucky
by David Sedaris
Memoir, Essays, Humor | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Mother Noise
by Cindy House
Memoir, Essays | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: Upcoming Fall/Winter books hosted by Buzz Books (here) | see panel archive

Nubia: The Awakening
by Omar Epps, Clarence A. Haynes
Fantasy, YA | Published: November 2022 | Goodreads

Anne of Greenville
by Mariko Tamaki
YA, Retelling, LGBTQ | Published: October 2022 | Goodreads

Queen Among the Dead
by Lesley Livingston
Fantasy, YA | Published: January 2023 | Goodreads


The Davenports
by Krystal Marquis
Historical, YA | Published: January 2023 | Goodreads
note: not a final cover, but i liked it so much i wanted to show this version

~*~

AND watched: theatre
Montana Story (2021)
Director/Writer: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Writer: Mike Spreter
Stars: Haley Lu Richardson, Owen Teague
Drama | imdb | my rating: 4
western vibe, beautiful, sad, hopeful

Two estranged siblings return home to the sprawling ranch they once knew and loved, confronting a deep and bitter family legacy against a mythic American backdrop.


~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

 
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