On The Nightstand: Autumn

Flowers of September
at Farmer's Market
~*~
Just a couple for the upcoming Autumn Equinox...

Autumn
by Ali Smith
Literary, Art, England | Published: 2016 | Goodreads

Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.

Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness.

The seasons roll round, as ever...

Quartet in Autumn
by Barbara Pym
Literary, Classics, London | Published: 1977 | Goodreads
In 1970s London Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia work in the same office and suffer the same problem - loneliness. Lovingly and with delightful humour, Pym conducts us through their day-to-day existence: their preoccupations, their irritations, their judgements, and - perhaps most keenly felt - their worries about having somehow missed out on life as post-war Britain shifted around them.

Books and Laundry: Summer

Summer
by Ali Smith
Literary, England | Published: 2020 | Goodreads
In the present, Sacha knows the world's in trouble. Her brother Robert just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world's in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn't even started yet.

In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they're living on borrowed time.

This is a story about people on the brink of change.

They're family, but they think they're strangers.

So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they've got nothing in common have in common?

First sentence(s):
Everybody said: so?
As in so what? As in shoulder shrug, or what do you expect me to do about it? or I so don't really give a fuck or actually I approve of it, it's fine by me.

Jane Austen sighting: She is mentioned on page 31.

Summertime time 2021

Summertime time
in which there will be summer-ish postings this month
~*~
Summertime
Summertime
Sum Sum
Summertime...
Suuuu...
uuuuuummm
errrrr
time!
~*~
Some summertime reading plans before things cool down...

stay tuned: more featured books will be listed here as posts go up

Currently on the beach towel with...

Summer
by Ali Smith
Literary, England | Published: 2020 | Goodreads

Summer
by Edith Wharton
Classic, Romance, Massachusetts Berkshires | Published: 1993 (first 1917) | Goodreads

Books and Laundry:
Summer by Ali Smith
Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Rampage

Books and Bus:
Summer by Edith Wharton

Books and Puzzles:
Red Sky Over Hawaii by Sara Ackerman
The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley
Books and Ice Cream:
Postscript Murders by Emily Griffiths

SUMMER SUN
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

SUMMER JOBS
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent
How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love With the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

SUMMER VACATION
The Vacation by T.M. Logan
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
Film: In Another Country directed by Sang-soo Hong

SUMMER ISLANDS
Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly
Red Island House by Andrea Lee
An Island by Karen Jennings
Island Queen
FILM: Fantasy Island directed by Jeff Wadlow
TV series: Fantasy Island season one (1977)
TV series: Fantasy Island (2021)

MORE SUMMER ISLANDS
Popisho by Leone Ross
Celestia by Manuele Fior
Emperors of Eight Islands by Lian Hearn

SUMMER POOLS
You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry (UK version of People We Meet on Vacation)
Wait For It by Jean McKinlay
Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky
FILM: La Piscine

MORE SUMMER POOLS
Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui
Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland
Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
The Union of Synchronized Swimmers: A Novella by Cristina Sandu
FILM: The Swimsuit Issue

SUMMER POOLS IN CALIFORNIA
Elsewhere, California by Dana Johnson
Kept Animals by Kate Milliken
The Guncle by Steven Rowley

SUMMER PARTIES
Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil
The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

SUMMER ROMANCE
Bombshell by Sarah MacLean
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

SUMMER WITH JANE
Sun-Kissed: Effusions of Summer edited by Christina Boyd
The Jane Austen Journal, Persuasions, volume 42, 2020

SUMMER SURF
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn
FILM: Endless Summer
Gidget by Frederick Kohner
FILM: Gidget
FILM: Gidget Goes Hawaiian

SUMMER GETAWAYS
Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley
FILM: Old

SUMMER in FRENCH RIVIERA
The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements, Onjuli Datta
Maigret on the Riviera by Georges Simenon
The Riviera House by Natasha Lester
FILM: To Catch A Thief

SUMMER TEA
The Peppermint Tea Chronicles by Alexander McCall Smith
Tea & Treachery by Vicki Delany
The Seafront Tearoom by Vanessa Greene
FILM: Tea with the Dames

SUMMER'S END
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
At Summer's End by Courtney Ellis
After the Sun by Jonas Eika translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg

~*~
* image source: Beach from Breathe magazine

* Summertime lyrics from Summertime Summertime by The Jamies

Lovely Books and Things - 4.11.21

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. The Alexander String Quartet (here):
2. Start of the SF Film Festival (virtual)
3. Dynamo Donuts in the Mission district

~*~

Bought:

Cattle Kingdom
by Alan LeMay
Western, Classic, Pulp | Published: 1948 | Goodreads

Library: audiobook

Summer
by Ali Smith
Literary, England | Published: 2020 | Goodreads
Library:

The Wife and The Widow
by Christian White
Mystery, Thriller, Australia | Published: 2020 | Goodreads
~*~
Virtual Author event: hosted by Alta Magazine
Listen to archive of this and check out their calendar for future free author events (here)

Eat the Mouth That Feeds You
by Caribbean Fragoza
Short Stories, Horror, U.S., Mexico | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

~*~
AND watched: virtual theatre for SF Film Festival (details)

The Dry (2020)
Director/Screenplay: Robert Connolly
Screenplay: Harry Cripps, Samantha Strauss
Based on book by: Jane Harper
Stars: Eric Bana, Genevieve O'Reilly, Keir O'Donnell
Crime, Drama, Mystery, Australia | imdb | my rating: 5
Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

Lily Topples the World (2021)
Director: Jeremy Workman
Stars: Lily Hevesh
Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
Lily Topples The World follows 20-year-old Lily Hevesh - the world's greatest domino toppler and the only woman in her field - in a coming-of-age story of artistry, passion, and unlikely triumph.

A Leave (2020)
Director/Writer: Ran-hee Lee
Stars: Ah-Seok Kim, Bong-ha Lee, Woon-Seop Shin
Drama, South Korea | imdb | my rating: 5
Middle-aged worker Jaebok recently lost a lawsuit asking for the invalidation of his recent dismissal. Sitting in a tent in the cold weather, he and his colleagues lose their will to fight further and feel pity for not being able to relish the time off work. Jaebok returns home but what awaits him are his daughters neglecting him and the feeling of worthlessness. His misery is aggravated because he cannot provide financial support for his oldest daughter's college tuition, and a longpadded coat that his little one has always wanted. The issues that director Lee has drawn attention to in her short films are now coalesced, developed and displayed in A Leave, her feature film debut.


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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

How To Be Both by Ali Smith

How To Be Both
by Ali Smith

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads

Published: 2014
Publisher: Pantheon
Genre: Literary
Hardback: 384 pages
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
Consider this moral conundrum for a moment, George's mother says to George who's sitting in the front passenger seat.

Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently attract serious acclaim and discussion—and have won her a dedicated readership who are drawn again and again to the warmth, humanity and humor of her voice.

How to be both is a novel all about art’s versatility. Borrowing from painting’s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it’s a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There’s a Renaissance artist of the 1460s. There’s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real—and all life’s givens get given a second chance.

A NOTE TO THE READER:
Who says stories reach everybody in the same order?
This novel can be read in two ways and this book provides you with both.
In half of all printed editions of the novel the narrative EYES comes before CAMERA.
In the other half of printed editions the narrative CAMERA precedes EYES.
The narratives are exactly the same in both versions, just in a different order.

The books are intentionally printed in two different ways, so that readers can randomly have different experiences reading the same text. So, depending on which edition you happen to receive, the book will be: EYES, CAMERA, or CAMERA, EYES. Enjoy the adventure.

My two-bits:

This is composed of two stories that make up one story that involve the world of art. Two different sections represent the past and the present with similarities and ties. But each have their set of characters that have perspectives of an artist and observer.

The running theme of two sides - things seen and unseen plays out throughout.

After discussion with my book group, I grew to appreciate this book better with an interest to re-read it.

Also, gained an interest in inspecting and looking at religious art a little more while at a museum.

~*~
* my copy starts off with George, the second version begins with Francescho

* part of Book Passage Literary Prize Book Group (here)

SHORT-LISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE 2014 GOLDSMITHS PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2014 COSTA NOVEL AWARD
WINNER OF THE SALTIRE LITERARY BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

A Best Book of the Year: NPR, Financial Times

Stacking the Shelves & Sunday Post - 4.1.17

Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
AND
Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer (details)
~*~
Another slow reading week. Too busy doing other things as the kid is home on spring break from college. A friend came along to visit as well. So, tourist stuff is in order :-)

~*~
Bought:

how to be both
by Ali Smith
-art, historical, literature
-on Man Booker Prize 2014 short list
Amazon | Goodreads

Author event:

WITH a full house and books sold out, Booksmith of San Francisco, hosted an evening with Sarah Andersen. As I was too far to see anything, I grabbed a photo of the author from instagram. Sarah treated us to a slide show of some of illustrations in her latest book and read its captions. Q&A and a signing followed.

We found out that she started drawing comics at age 11. Webcomics is where she likes to read comics. She is currently working on illustrations for a longer story piece that is fairy tale themed.

Big Mushy Happy Lump:
A Sarah's Scribbles Collection
by Sarah Andersen
-Comics, Humor
Amazon | Goodreads

OTHER things:

JOINED another reading challenge (here) to shake up my already full schedule ;-)

APRIL is National Poetry Month and I will be incorporating some poetry into the reading mix from (here).

APRIL is also the Write_On Challenge sponsored by Write_On (here). It is a call to action to write 30 letters in 30 days during April, National Letterwriting Month. I received this writing kit from Write_On to kick off the month.


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

Book Passage Literary Prize Book Group

Potpourri of Literary Prizes 2017
with Carol Benet
Book Passage in Corte Madera (details)
This group reads authors that have won literary prizes including the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle.

~*~
I decided to join another face-to-face book group. The theme for this one has a focus on literary prize winning books. I am looking forward to experiencing and analyzing these books. And, most of all, discovering why they made it to the prestigious top.

~*~
Picks for January to June:

Eileen
by Ottessa Moshfegh
-Historical, Mystery, Thriller
Pen/Hemingway Award 2016
Amazon | Goodreads | my review

The Vegetarian
by Han Kang
-Literary, Korea
Man Booker International Prize 2016
Powells | Amazon | Goodreads | my review

how to be both
by Ali Smith
-Art, Historical, Literary
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015
Costa Novel Award 2014
Goldsmiths Award 2014
Amazon | Goodreads | my review

Libra
by Don DeLillo
-Historical, Literary
Irish Times International Fiction Prize 1989
Amazon | Goodreads | my review

The Sound of Things Falling
by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
-Literary, Historical
International Dublin Literary Award 2014
Amazon | Goodreads | my review
Picks for September to January:

The Land at the End of the World
by António Lobo Antunes
-Literary, Portugal
Amazon | Goodreads

A Manual for Cleaning Women:
Selected Stories
by Lucia Berlin
-Literary, Short Stories
Amazon | Goodreads

A Horse Walks Into a Bar
by David Grossman
-Literary, Israel, Jewish
Booker International Prize
Amazon | Goodreads

The Sellout
by Paul Beatty
-Literary, Humor
Amazon | Goodreads

Judas
by Amos Oz
-Literary, Jewish
The Man Booker International Prize 2017 shortlist
Amazon | Goodreads

Stacking the Shelves - 12.6.14

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~*~
Bought:

From Powell's Indiespensable club package (details):
Powell's subscription club delivers the best new books, with special attention to independent publishers. Signed first editions. Inventive, original sets. Exclusive printings.... Every six weeks, another installment to read and admire.

Plus, every package is stocked with exciting surprises!

This is package #50. (sorry - this is sold out, but you can signup for the next one)

All My Puny Sorrows
by Miriam Toews
-Canada, contemporary
Powells | Goodreads
Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda's life is enviable (she's a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married) and Yolandi's a mess (she's divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close — raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf's desire to end her life. After Elf's latest attempt, Yoli must quickly determine how to keep her family from falling apart, how to keep her own heart from breaking, and what it means to love someone who wants to die.

All My Puny Sorrows is the latest novel from Miriam Toews, one of Canada's most beloved authors — not only because her work is rich with deep human feeling and compassion but because her observations are knife-sharp and her books wickedly funny. And this is Toews at her finest: a story that is as much a comedy as it is a tragedy, a goodbye grin from the friend who taught you how to live.


For Review:

Tortured Souls
The Orion Circle #1
by Kimber Leigh Wheaton
-paranormal, YA
courtesy of author
Thanks !
Amazon | Goodreads

Under the Georgia Moon
by Cindy Roland Anderson
-christian, romance
courtesy of book tour sponsored by I Am A Reader
Thanks !
Amazon | Goodreads
Library:

Isla and the Happily Ever After
by Stephanie Perkins
-romance, YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Love ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last?

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart.

Featuring cameos from fan-favorites Anna, Étienne, Lola, and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love—set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series.

Dreaming about getting soon:

how to be both
by Ali Smith
-art, historical, literature
-on Man Booker Prize 2014 short list
Amazon | Goodreads
Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently attract serious acclaim and discussion—and have won her a dedicated readership who are drawn again and again to the warmth, humanity and humor of her voice.

How to be both is a novel all about art’s versatility. Borrowing from painting’s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it’s a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There’s a Renaissance artist of the 1460s. There’s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real—and all life’s givens get given a second chance.

A NOTE TO THE READER:
Who says stories reach everybody in the same order?

This novel can be read in two ways and this book provides you with both.

In half of all printed editions of the novel the narrative EYES comes before CAMERA.

In the other half of printed editions the narrative CAMERA precedes EYES.

The narratives are exactly the same in both versions, just in a different order.

The books are intentionally printed in two different ways, so that readers can randomly have different experiences reading the same text. So, depending on which edition you happen to receive, the book will be: EYES, CAMERA, or CAMERA, EYES. Enjoy the adventure.

-----> the note to reader peaks my interest and this was also on the

OTHER things on my shelf: kinda book-related

The Books on the Nightstand
Holiday Gift Guide 2014
get your free copy here

#GiveABook
Celebrate family, friends, and books! For every use of the hashtag #GiveABook on Facebook or Twitter before December 25th, Penguin Random House (details) will donate a book to the Save the Children organization, up to 25,000 times!

~*~
* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

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

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers