Lovely Books and Things - 2.4.24

Lovely Books and Things
My Books and Films Update
~*~
HAPPY THINGS:

1. February is Loveuary Jane Austen movies at the Hallmark channel (details)
2. A yummy cannoli from Mara's Italian Pastries on Columbus Avenue, San Francisco
3. New York city themed collage piece using The New Yorker magazine images for art club

~*~
Library: audiobook

Leslie F*cking Jones
by Leslie Jones
Memoir, Comedy | Published: 2023
[{ details/order }]

Library:

American Mermaid
by Julia Langbein
Literary | Published: 2023
[{ details/order }]

To Be Featured:

The Blueprint
by Rae Giana Rashad
Dystopian, African American | Published: February 13, 2024
courtesy of author -Thanks!
[{ details/order }]

The Secret of Lillian Velvet
by Jaclyn Moriarty
Fantasy, Middle Grade | Published: 2023
courtesy of publisher -Thanks!
[{ details/order }]


~*~
AND watched: HBO Max

True Detective (2024)
Night Country; season 4
Director: Issa Lopez
Stars: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis
Crime, Drama, Mystery | imdb

In Ennis, Alaska, the men that operate a research station vanish. To solve the case, Chief Danvers and Navarro will have to confront the darkness themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.

AND watched: theatre

American Fiction (2023)
Director: Cord Jefferson
Writers: Cord Jefferson, Percival Everett
Based on book: Erasure by Percival Everett
Stars: Jeffrey Wright
Comedy, Drama | imdb

A novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

Zone of Interest (2023)
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Screenplay: Martin Amis, Jonathan Glazer
Based on book by Martin Amis
Stars: Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel
Drama, WWII | imdb

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

AND watched: Kanopy

Four Daughters (2023)
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Stars: Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui
Documentary, Tunisia | imdb

Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. Filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses to fill in their absence.
~*~
Linking up with:
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)
Sunday Salon (details)

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Happy release: The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad

The Blueprint
by Rae Giana Rashad
Dystopian, African American | Published: February 13, 2024
[{ details/order }]
In the vein of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood, a harrowing novel set in an alternate United States—a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official and must face the dangerous consequences. ~*~ Solenne Bonet lives in Texas where choice no longer exists. An algorithm determines a Black woman’s occupation, spouse, and residence. Solenne finds solace in penning the biography of Henriette, an ancestor who’d been an enslaved concubine to a wealthy planter in 1800s Louisiana. But history repeats itself when Solenne, lonely and naïve, finds herself entangled with Bastien Martin, a high-ranking government official. Solenne finds the psychological bond unbearable, so she considers alternatives. With Henriette as her guide, she must decide whether and how to leave behind all she knows.
Inspired by the lives of enslaved concubines to U.S. politicians and planters, The Blueprint unfolds over dual timelines to explore bodily autonomy, hypocrisy, and power imbalances through the lens of the nation’s most unprotected: a Black girl.

First sentence:
The men called her Henriette, but it wasn't her name. She promised herself she would never think it, never say it, never answer to it. It wouldn't be her name.