Books and Bag: Sparkle

Books and Bag
doing some dreaming
a designer bag and books to fill it
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Husband Material
by Alexis Hall
Romance, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Wanted:
One (very real) husband
Nowhere near perfect but desperately trying his best

In BOYFRIEND MATERIAL, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to fall in love, fell in love for real, dealt with heartbreak and disappointment and family and friends…and somehow figured out a way to make it work. Now it seems like everyone around them is getting married, and Luc’s feeling the social pressure to propose. But it’ll take more than four weddings, a funeral, and a bowl full of special curry to get these two from I don’t know what I’m doing to I do.

Good thing Oliver is such perfect HUSBAND MATERIAL.

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All Good People Here
by Ashley Flowers
Mystery, Thriller | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her sick uncle, it feels like walking into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembered: genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under eerily similar circumstances. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, the family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could the killer still be out there? Could it be the same person who kidnapped Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night?

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* image source: bag -Cult Gaia, Hera Crystal Shoulder Bag

Lovely Books and Things - 8.28.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update
Linking up with:
Mailbox Monday (details)
***ATTENTION: Mailbox Monday is looking for a new host! I would like to pass the torch onto someone new. If you’re interested, please email savvyverseandwit AT gmail

Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)
Sunday Salon (details)

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. Bag of backyard lemons from friend
2. Crime Junkie, a true crime podcast (here)
3. Road trip road side attraction, Paul Bunyan statue in Kenton, Oregon

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Bought:

Diary of a Void
by Emi Yagi
translated by David Boyd, Lucy North
Contemporary, Japan | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Library: audiobook

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
by Kikuko Tsumura
translated by Polly Barton
Contemporary, Japan | Published: 2020 | Goodreads

Library:

Death by Landscape
by Elvia Wilk
Essays, Feminism, Environment, Climate Change | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Freebies: ARC for Romance Bookstore Day on August 20

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match
by Sally Thorne
Historical, Romance | Published: Sep 2022 | Goodreads

Freebies: from Free Little Library

When Life Gives You Lululemons
by Lauren Weisberger
Chicklit | Published: 2018 | Goodreads

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AND watched: theatre

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Director/Writer: Taika Waititi
Writer: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Based on Marvel comic: Stan Lee, Jason Aaron
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale
Action, Adventure, Comedy | imdb | my rating: 4
fun one for summer
Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. (2022)
Director/Writer: Adamma Ebo
Stars: Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown
Comedy | imdb | my rating: 5
stand by your man moments and then some
In the aftermath of a huge scandal, Trinitie Childs, the first lady of a prominent Southern Baptist Mega Church, attempts to help her pastor-husband, Lee-Curtis Childs, rebuild their congregation.

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Explore: Marrakesh

Explore The World 2022
through books, films, etc.
August: Marrakesh

READ:

Mother Country
by Jacinda Townsend
Contemporary, Feminism, Africa | Published: May 3, 2022 | Goodreads

WATCH:

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (2019)
Netflix series
Episode 2: Marrakesh with Chrissy Teigen
Stars: David Chang
Documentary | imdb
Chang accompanied by a different celebrity guest exploring a single city, its culture and its cuisine. As the pair travels through each city, they will also uncover new and surprising things about themselves.

PUZZLE:

Marrakech Riad
from Better Co. (here)

VISIT: someday...

Fnaque Berbere
(bookstore and cafe)
Derb Ksour (details and photo)
Medina, Marrakech Morocco

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* part of Explore the World (here)

Road trips

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ta ta for now...

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The Summer Seekers
by Sarah Morgan
Chick-lit, Travel | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
Kathleen is eighty years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move in to a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves—what she needs—is adventure.

Liza is drowning under the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own.

Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. But she knows something has to change.

When Martha sees Kathleen’s advertisement for a driver and companion to share an epic road trip across America, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. She’s not the world’s best driver, but anything has to be better than living with her parents. And traveling with a stranger? No problem. Anyway, how much trouble can one eighty-year-old woman be?

As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it’s never too late to start over.

The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
Historical, Travel | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.

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* image source header: pinterest

Rabbit rabbit: Authority

Authority
by Jeff Vandermeer
SciFi, Horror | Published: 2014 | Goodreads
The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.

John Rodríguez (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.