Get Fooled

Happy April Fool's Day!
~*~

The Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith
Thriller | Published: 1955

Ripley
TV mini series, Netflix (2024)
Thriller | based on the book, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
~*~
* header image source: Paris dress by Jean Dessès

Reading Pilgrimage 2026

Reading Pilgrimage
ReadAlong 2026
details | #PilgrimageTogether
Reading Pilgrimage is intended to help readers discover and appreciate Dorothy Richardson’s masterpiece Pilgrimage.
~*~ JANUARY:
Introductory Session

FEBRUARY:
Pointed Roofs
Published: 1915 |

MARCH:
Backwater
Published: 1916 |

APRIL:
Honeycomb
Published: 1917 |

MAY:
The Tunnel
Published: 1919 |

JUNE:
Interim
Published: 1920 |

JULY:
Deadlock
Published: 1921 |

AUGUST:
Revolving Lights
Published: 1923 |

SEPTEMBER:
The Trap
Published: 1925 |

OCTOBER:
Oberland
Published: 1928 |

NOVEMBER:
Dawn's Left Hand
Published: 1931 |

DECEMBER:
Clear Horizon
Published: 1935 |

JANUARY:
Dimple Hill
Published: 1938 |

FEBRUARY:
March Moonlight
Published: 1967 |

~*~ * header image source: cover for Pilgrimage 4 by Dorothy Richardson
* My first pilgrimage of Pilgrimage was in 2022 (here). I finished first book and got partially through second.

Japanese Literature Challenge 19

Japanese Literature Challenge 19
hosted by Dolce Bellezza (details)
January 1 to March 31, 2026

The Amberglow Candy Store
by Hiyoko Kurisu
translated by Matt Treyvaud
Fantasy, Magic, Cozy, Candy, Japan | Published: 2025 | my rating: 5

Little Shrew
by Akiko Miyakoshi
Children's, Animal, Friendship, illustrated | Published: 2024

Hotel Iris
by Yoko Ogawa
translated by Stephen Snyder
Psychological, Erotic, Japan | Published: 1996 (first)

Nobu: a memoir
by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa
Memoir, Restauranteur, Japan | Published: 2017

Murderbot

Mystery, Mayhem, Murderbot
Must-reads!
~*~

All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
SciFi (2017)

Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells (2018)

Rogue Protocol
by Martha Wells (2018)

Exit Strategy
by Martha Wells (2018)

Network Effect
by Martha Wells (2020)

Fugitive Telemetry
by Martha Wells (2021)

System Collapse
by Martha Wells (2023)

Then watch series...

Murderbot
season 1 (2025)

~*~ * header image source: murderbot

Book pile: yellow treats

This year's summer reading pile includes a lot of yellow covered treats.

Japanese Literature Challenge 18

Japanese Literature Challenge 18
hosted by Dolce Bellezza (details)
January 1 to March 31, 2025

Kanazawa
by David Joiner
Contemporary Fiction, Kanawawa, Japan | Published: 2022 | my rating: 4

Nails and Eyes
by Kaori Fujino
translated by Kendall Heitzmann
Horror, Short Stories, Japan | Published: 2013 (first) | my rating: 4

Lonely Planet Journeys: Lost Japan
by Alex Kerr
Travel, Memoir, Japan | Published: 2013 | my rating: 5

Under the Eye of the Big Bird
by Hiromi Kawakami
translated by Asa Yoneda
SciFi, Speculative, Japan | Published: 2016 (first)

A Darcy Christmas by Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan, Carolyn Eberhart

A Darcy Christmas
by Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan, Carolyn Eberhart (2010)

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Wish You a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Share in the magic of the season in these three warm and wonderful holiday novellas from bestselling authors.

Headstrong Girls by Debra Anne Watson, June Williams, Enid Wilson

Headstrong Girls
A bit of mystery, a bit of love,
all inspired by Jane Austen
by Debra Anne Watson, June Williams, and Enid Wilson

Book Excerpt | Enid's Website
Published: 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace
Genre: Jane Austen, Short Stories
Paperback: 252 pages

In Jane Austen's beloved classic, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet's relationship with the wealthy Fitzwilliam Darcy suffers misunderstanding, heated argument, and family interference on the way to love. Darcy's opinionated aunt, Lady Catherine, demands that Elizabeth give up Darcy, and calls Elizabeth headstrong for failing to keep to her lower social sphere.

Elizabeth is headstrong -- determined, stubborn, fiery, strong-willed, adventurous, yet sensitive to others. This is what readers love about her and what inspires the creation of this book.

Headstrong Girls has seven short stories and a short film script: Who is in the secret passage at Pemberley? Did Lizzy Bennet commit murder? What is mailroom-clerk Lizzy hiding from CEO Darcy? Who is creating havoc on a South African wildlife preserve?

With a little mystery and a little romance, across the Regency, fantasy, and modern genres, the book takes Jane Austen's characters to wonderful new adventures. May headstrong girls find their hearts' desire!

On The Nightstand: Wayfarers

The Wayfarers series Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space-and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe-in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2014

A Closed and Common Orbit
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2016

Record of a Spaceborn Few
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2018

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2021

Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer edited by Christina Boyd

Not too late to capture summer romance vibes with...

Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer
by KaraLynne Mackrory, Linda Beutler, Abigail Bok,
Karen M. Cox, J. Marie Croft, Natalie Richards,
Sophia Rose, Morgan K. Wyatt, Christina Boyd (Editor)
Published: 2015
Publisher: Meryton Press (Website | Blog
Genre: Romance, Short Stories, Jane Austen theme
Paperback: 228 pages

If you desire a little heat, a summer flirtation, or an escape to bask in your own private sun, this whimsical collection of original short stories is inspired by all things summer. In collaboration with some of Meryton Press’s most popular and award-winning authors, this anthology debuts other promising and emerging talent.

Contemporary and Regency alike, each romance was dreamt as a perfect summer refreshment to bring a smile to your own sun-kissed face.

• In KaraLynne Mackrory’s Shades of Pemberley, Mr. Darcy, with some fantastic assistance, discovers Elizabeth Bennet in a most unlikely place.

• Karen M. Cox’s Northanger Revisited 2015 modernizes Northanger Abbey at a fictionalized seaside in Georgia.

• Linda Beutler takes us to Paris as a young gentleman is schooled in the ways of amour in The Incomplete Education of Fitzwilliam Darcy.

• In Spyglasses and Sunburns, J. Marie Croft takes the Miss Bennets to the seaside where they chance upon handsome acquaintances.

• In Abigail Bok’s A Summer in Sanditon, a little sea bathing seems just the thing to cure what ails Anne de Bourgh.

• In Natalie Richards’ Midsummer Madness, an honest confession and a promise between strangers at a masque ball mend a misunderstanding.

• Sophia Rose re-imagines a modern-day Persuasion in Second Chance at Sunset Beach.

• In Morgan K Wyatt’s Dream Spinner, a near-death car accident and an unlikely trucker bring new perspective to a young co-ed’s life and love.

On The Nightstand: Wolf Hall

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
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Library:

American Mermaid
by Julia Langbein
Literary | Published: 2023
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To Be Featured:

The Blueprint
by Rae Giana Rashad
Dystopian, African American | Published: February 13, 2024
courtesy of author -Thanks!
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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.

Rabbit rabbit: The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal

The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
by Edmund de Waal
Memoir, History | Published: 2010 | Goodreads
264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined.

From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.

First sentence(s):
In 1991 I was given a two-year scholarship by a Japanese foundation. The idea was to give seven young English people with diverse professional interests - engineering, journalism, industry, ceramics - a grounding in the Japanese language at an English university, followed by a year in Tokyo. Our fluency would help build a new era of contacts with Japan. We were the first intake on the program and expectations were high.

Rabbit rabbit: Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
by Emily Austin
Contemporary, LGBTQ | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
Gilda, a twenty-something lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.

In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.

Rabbit rabbit: Rabbit Island

Rabbit Island
by Elvira Navarro
translated by Christina MacSweeney
Short stories, Horror, Spain | Published: 2021 (first 2019) | Goodreads
Combining the gritty surrealism of David Lynch with the explosive interior meditations of Clarice Lispector, the stories in Elvira Navarro’s Rabbit Island traverse the fickle, often terrifying terrain between madness and freedom. In the title story, a so-called “non-inventor” conducts an experiment on an island inhabited exclusively by birds and is horrified by what the results portend. “Myotragus” bears witness to a man of privilege’s understanding of the world being violently disrupted by the sight of a creature long thought extinct. Elsewhere, an unsightly “paw” grows from a writer’s earlobe; a grandmother floats silently in the corner of a room.

These eleven stories from one of Granta’s “Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists” are psychogeographies of dingy hotel rooms, shape-shifting cities, and graveyards. They act as microscopes fixed upon the regions of our interior lives we often neglect, where the death of God and the failures of institutions have given way to alternative modes of making sense of the world. They are cracked bedroom mirrors. Do you like what you see?

Rabbit rabbit: Finding the Bunny

Finding the Bunny
The secrets of America's most influential and invisible art
revealed through the struggles of one woman's journey
by Samantha Paris
Biography | Published: 2018 | Goodreads
Through narration, flashback, inner monologue, and snappy laugh-out-loud dialogue, Samantha Paris's Finding the Bunny--now optioned by Warner Bros. for development into a television series-- artfully peels back the curtain on the fascinating world of voice-over, and much more. With untethered honesty and humor, voice-over genius Paris reveals her intensely personal story— that of a woman in mid-career, recovering from a disastrous childhood, dealing with a failed but far-from-loveless marriage, running a hugely successful business, shepherding thousands of students through the learning process so that they can realize their dreams, while dealing with a burning internal conflict about what happened to hers.

Happy release: Confidence by Rafael Frumkin

Confidence
by Rafael Frumkin
Contemporary, LGBTQ | Published: March 2023 | Goodreads
At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn’t have a lot going for him. He is shorter than average, gap-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He’s also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie.

Ezra's summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like, with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet--NuLife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss--things start to spin wildly out of control.

Rabbit rabbit: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

What Moves the Dead
by T. Kingfisher
Horror, Gothic, Retelling | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
What Moves the Dead is Kingfisher's retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher.”

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.