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

Lovely Books and Things - 7.18.21

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. Fresh french bakery croissants
2. Paris in July (here)
3. Old San Francisco buildings - SF Chronicle building (1924)

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Library: audiobook

A Paris All Your Own
Bestselling Women Writers on the City of Light
edited by Eleanor Brown
contributors: Michelle Gable, Jennifer Coburn,
Cathy Kelly, Julie Powell, Lauren Willig,
Therese Anne Fowler, Maggie Shipstead
Essays, Memoir, Travel, France | Published: 2017 | Goodreads
Library:

Persuasion
An Annotated Edition by Jane Austen
edited by Robert Morrison
Classics, Historical, England | Published: 2011 | Goodreads

The Lost Books of Jane Austen
by Janine Barchas
History, Jane Austen theme | Published: 2019 | Goodreads
Freebies: from Free Little Library

Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear
Historical, Mystery, England | Published: 2004 | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: hosted by Third Place Books
See archive of this (here)

A Psalm for the Wild-Built
by Becky Chambers
SciFi, Novella | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
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AND watched: theatre

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)
Director: Morgan Neville
Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
A documentary about Anthony Bourdain and his career as a chef, writer and host, revered and renowned for his authentic approach to food, culture and travel.

Enjoyed learning about the other parts of Bourdain's life apart from food and travel.

AND watched: DVD

Watchmen (2019)
tv series
Creator: Damon Lindelof
Based on DC characters by: Dave Gibbons
Stars: Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Action, Drama, Mystery | imdb | my rating: 5
Set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name, while attempting to break new ground of its own.

Got me thinking... what is saving the world, what is saving humanity?

fyi: jigsaw puzzle sighting at episode 4.
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* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Medieval-a-thon 2021

Medieval-a-thon 2021
hosted by Holly Hearts Books
January 10 to February 10, 2021
details: twitter | instagram | youtube | discord
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I will follow the Seamstress route and try to rise in the nobility ranks from a lowly Prisoner to an enchanting Empress.

Prospects per prompts:

Read a book you are unsure about:

The Betrayal of Trust
by Mystery, Crime, England
Published: 2011
Mystery, Crime, England | Goodreads | my rating: tba | my two-bits: tba

First book to a series:

The Bridal Wreath
(Kristin Lavransdatter #1)
by Sigrid Undset
translated by Charles Archer J.S. Scott
Published: 1987 (first 1920)
Historical, Classic, Scandinavian | Goodreads | my rating: tba | my two-bits: tba

A book embossed or foiling on the cover:

Legacy
by Cayla Kluver
Published: 2011
YA, Fantasy, Romance | Goodreads | my rating: tba | my two-bits: dnf

The last book you bought/borrowed:

Ariel
by Sylvia Plath
Published: 2010 (first 1966)
Poetry, Feminism, American | Goodreads | read: 1/26/21

Prettiest book on your shelf:

Breasts and Eggs
by Mieko Kawakami
translated by Sam Bett, David Boyd
Published: 2020
Literary, Feminism, Japan | Goodreads | my rating: 5 got me thinking: about the female body, children and meaning of life

Other prospects:

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
by V.E. Schwab
Fantasy, Historical, Romance, (audio) | Published: 2020 | Goodreads | my rating: tba

Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells
SciFi, Novella | Published: 2018 | Goodreads | my rating: 5 my two-bits: loved the continuation of the mystery of this AI's past

Bad Debts
by Peter Temple
Published: 2005 (first 1996)
Mystery, Australia | Goodreads | my rating: 3| my two-bits: Fell for the protagonist and his circle of friends more than the story.

A Closed and Common Orbit
by Becky Chambers
Published: 2016
SciFi, Space Opera | Goodreads |my rating: tba | my two-bits: tba

Before the Coffee Gets Cold
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
Fantasy, Time Travel, Japan, (audio) | Published: 2019 (first 2015) | Goodreads | my rating: 5 got me thinking: the importance of the present

Transcendent Kingdom
by Yaa Gyasi
Contemporary, Africa | Goodreads | my rating: 5 got me thinking: religion, science, depression

The Memory Police
by Yoko Ogawa
translated by Stephen Snyder
Literature, Dystopia, Japan, (audio) | Published: 2019 | Goodreads | my rating: 5 got me thinking: long-term illness, death and dying

Heartstopper
volume 1
by Alice Oseman
Graphic Novel, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: 2016 | Goodreads | my rating: 5 my two-bits: Loved the start of this feel good romance.

Heartstopper
volume 2
by Alice Oseman
Graphic Novel, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: 2019 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
STATUS as of Feb 7: #7 Empress

RESULTS: Completed! Interesting to note that I ended up reading books off the prompts/prospects list.

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

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

Published: 2014
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Genre: SciFi, Space Opera
Paperback: 518
Rating: 5
Goodreads
Website

Wayfarers series:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Closed and Common Orbit
Record of a Spaceborn Few

First sentence(s):
As she woke up in the pod, she remembered three things.

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.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

My two-bits:
Loved this spaceship crew. Loved learning about living in the future with its diverse alien cultures and interactions.

Reminded of tv past scifi shows Farscape and Firefly.

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* monthly theme: SciFi, Supper, Love, Sex and Marriage

Lovely Books and Things - 11.4.19

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update
Linking up with:
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. Start of NaNoWriMo. I plan on working on short stories.

2. Fried Chicken Sandwich from The Bird in SOMA (here)
*Our chicken is always free-range
*We use a berbere spice blend to give the chicken that little something special
*Our fried chicken is served on a fresh bun that’s baked each morning by a local baker
*The sandwich is loaded with our own crunchy apple slaw (made fresh in house daily)

3. Sauron's eye atop the Salesforce building on Halloween

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Author event:

The West Portal Book Shop hosted a conversation with authors Meg Waite Clayton and E.R. Ramzipoor.

The Last Train to London
by Meg Waite Clayton
-Historical, WWII, London | Goodreads

The Ventriloquists
by E.R. Ramzipoor
-Historical, WWII, Brussels | Goodreads

Book Passage of Corte Madera hosted Lara Prescott with her debut novel The Secrets We Kept which was inspired by Lara in Dr. Zhivago.

The Secrets We Kept
by Lara Prescott
-Historical, Romance, Russia | Goodreads

Library:

Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
-Classic, Historical, Russian | Goodreads
PLAN to read this before Lara's book to familiarize myself with this classic.

Reading challenge:

SciFi Month 2019
(details & signup)
My reading list:

The Future is Female!
Women's Science Fiction Stories from the Pulp Era to the New Wave
by Lisa Yaszek (Editor), Leslie F. Stone, Judith Merril, Leigh Brackett, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree Jr.
-SciFi, Short Stories | Goodreads

Kojiki
(Kojiki #1)
by Keith Yatsuhashi
-SciFi, Japan | Goodreads | my review

Record of a Spaceborn Few
(Wayfarers #3)
by Becky Chambers
-SciFi, Space Opera | Goodreads | my review: tba
FOR the SciFi Challenge read-along.


AND watched: in theatre

Earthquake Bird (2019)
Director/Adaptation: Wash Westmoreland
Based on novel by: Susanna Jones
Stars: Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, Jack Huston
-Crime, Drama, Mystery, Japan | imdb | my rating: 5
An enigmatic translator with a dark past is brought in for questioning after an ex-pat friend, who came between her and her photographer boyfriend, ends up missing and presumed dead.

SENSE of longing and belonging struck me.

AND watched: in theatre, part of the SFFILM Documentary Film Festival (here)

The Kingmaker (2019)
Director: Lauren Greenfield
-Documentary, Philippines | imdb | my rating: 5
Documentary centering on the controversial political career of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines whose behind-the-scenes influence of her husband Ferdinand's presidency rocketed her to the global political stage.

AMAZING how this documentary was so much more than expected and kinda scary too. Definitely one to watch in regards to the current politics of the Philippines.

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* updated 11/17/19

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)