Lovely Books and Things - 5.15.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Forbidden Fiber Co. cross stitch kits (here) - just got a donut themed one
2. Cafe Breve Latte - new favorite drink
3. Lion Dance street competition in Chinatown

~*~
Bought:

Book Lovers
by Emily Henry
Contemporary, Romance | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

The California Gold Rush Romance Collection
9 Stories of Finding Treasures
by Dianne Christner, Amanda Barratt, Angela Bell,
Anne Greene, Linda Farmer Harris, Cynthia Hickey
Pam Hillman, Jennifer Rogers Spinola, Jaime Jo Wright
Historical, Romance | Published: 2016 | Goodreads

Library:

Mr. Malcolm's List
by Suzanne Allain
Historical, Romance, Regency | Published: 2020 | Goodreads

Portrait of a Thief
by Grace D. Li
Mystery, Thriller, Art | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
~*~
Virtual Author event: hosted by Book Passage
See archive of this (here)

The Ravaged
by Norman Reedus, Frank Bill
Contemporary | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
~*~
AND watched: theatre

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Director/Writer: Tom Gormican
Writer: Kevin Etten
Stars: Nicholas Cage, Pedro Pascal
Action, Comedy, Crime | imdb | my rating: 4
fun and bromance-y
A cash-strapped Nicolas Cage agrees to make a paid appearance at a billionaire super fan's birthday party, but is really an informant for the CIA since the billionaire fan is a drug kingpin and gets cast in a Tarantino movie.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Michael Waldron
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen
Action, Adventure, Fantasy | imdb | my rating: 4
fun superhero doings
saw this on Mother's Day which was apropo
Dr. Stephen Strange casts a forbidden spell that opens the doorway to the multiverse, including alternate versions of himself, whose threat to humanity is too great for the combined forces of Strange, Wong, and Wanda Maximoff.

AND watched: screening with Q&A at 836M Gallery (here)

Picture a Scientist (2020)
Director: Ian Cheney, Sharon Shattuck
Stars: Raychelle Burks, Nancy Hopkins, Jane Willenbring
Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
Despite the minimal news coverage, sexual harassment and gender inequality against women are no less prevalent in science than they are in pop culture and corporate America.

AND watched: theatre for CAAMfest40 (details)

Free Chol Soo Lee (2022)
Director: Julie Ha, Eugene Yi
Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
asian american history that's a must-see, must-know
Asian Americans unite to free Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant who was wrongly convicted of a gang murder, but once out, he self-destructs, threatening the movement's legacy and the man himself.


~*~

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Perdita Book Club

Perdita
Romance Book Club (details)
~*~ Found this super cute shop in the lower Haight that has a book club with some lovely picks. Gonna join in.

~*~ APRIL:

Mr. Wrong Number
by Lynn Painter
Romance, Contemporary | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
MAY:

Dating Dr. Dil
(If Shakespeare was an Auntie #1)
by Nisha Sharma
Romance, Contemporary, India | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 4

Portrait of a Thief
by Grace D. Li
Mystery, Art | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
JUNE:

Book Lovers
by Emily Henry
Contemporary, Romance | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 4

Disorientation
by Elaine Hsieh Chou
Literary, Asian American, Taiwan | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
JULY:

A Lady for a Duke
by Alexis Hall
Romance, Historical, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
AUGUST:

The Cartographers
by Peng Shepherd
Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

SEPTEMBER:

Love on the Brain
by Ali Hazelwood
Romance | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

OCTOBER:

The Make-Up Test
by Jenny L. Howe
Romance, Academia | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 3
NOVEMBER:

The Cloisters
by Katy Hays
Mystery, Gothic | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 3
DECEMBER:

Just Like Magic
by Sarah Hogle
Romance, Holiday | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Buzzword Challenge 2022

Buzzword Reading Challenge
hosted by Books and Lala
details | storygraph
#buzzwordathon
The Buzzword Readathon (#buzzwordathon) is a monthly readathon, running the first week of each month (1st through 7th). Each month has a designated word/word theme and you have a week to read as many books as you like with that word in the title.

Alternatively you can complete this as a year-long reading challenge, and read just ONE book each month featuring the monthly buzzword until you complete the whole challenge!

~*~
JANUARY: A book with one of the 5 W's in the title - WHEN
who, where, what, when, why OR how

When We Cease to Understand the World
by Benjamín Labatut
translated by Adrian Nathan West
Short Stories, Historical | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
FEBRUARY: A book with a location in the title - HE
me, you, mine, yours, he, she, hers, his, their, theirs, we, ours etc.

The Last Thing He Told Me
by Laura Dave
Thriller, Mystery | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
MARCH: A book with a location in the title - KAMUSARI
A city, country, state, province etc. OR an attraction (ex: park, valley, Disney World etc.)

The Easy Life in Kamusari
by Shion Miura
translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter
YA, Contemporary, Japan | Published: 2021 (first 2009) | Goodreads | my rating: 5
APRIL: A book with LITTLE or BIG in the title - BIG
Any word similar to these qualifies (ex: giant, tiny, small, huge)

Love in the Big City
by Sang Young Park
translated by Anton Hur
Contemporary, LGBTQ, Korea | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
MAY: A book with a direction in the title - NORTH
north, south, east, west OR left/right, up/down etc.

My Holiday in North Korea:
The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth
by Wendy E. Simmons
Memoir, Travel, North Korea | Goodreads | my rating : 4
JUNE: A book with ALL in the title - ALL
all / all's

Scattered All Over the Earth
by Yōko Tawada
translated by Margaret Mitsutani
SciFi, Climate, Japan | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
JULY: A book with a book related word in the title - BOOK
examples: book, library, read, page, paper

Book Lovers
by Emily Henry
Contemporary, Romance | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 5

AUGUST: A book with an item/object in the title - VIOLETS
examples: door, key, house, moon, donut, dress

Violets
by Kyung-sook Shin
translated by Anton Hur
LGBTQ, Historical, Korea | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
SEPTEMBER: A book with LIGHT or DARK in the title - DARK
light/dark or words associated, such as shadow, bright, darkness, highlight, shine

A Flicker in the Dark
by Stacy Willingham
Thriller, Mystery | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
OCTOBER: A book with an animal or creature in the title - BUNNY
from mermaids and vampires, to birds and wolves

Cursed Bunny
by Bora Chung
translated by Anton Hurby
Short Stories, Horror, Korea | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
NOVEMBER: A book with "ING" in the title - KILLINGS
examples: missing, haunting, watching, darling

The Basel Killings
by Hansjörg Schneider
translated by Mike Mitchell
Mystery, Crime, Germany | Published: 2021 (first 2004) | Goodreads
DECEMBER: A book with a number in the title - SEVEN
one, 4, eight, thousand, million

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Historical, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: 2017 | Goodreads

Summer Pools

Take a dip into these...

You and Me on Vacation
by Emily Henry
Contemporary, Romance | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
TWO FRIENDS
TEN SUMMER TRIPS
THEIR LAST CHANCE TO FALL IN LOVE

12 SUMMERS AGO: Poppy and Alex meet. They hate each other, and are pretty confident they'll never speak again.

11 SUMMERS AGO: They're forced to share a ride home from college and by the end of it a friendship is formed. And a pact: every year, one vacation together.

10 SUMMERS AGO: Alex discovers his fear of flying on the way to Vancouver.
Poppy holds his hand the whole way.

7 SUMMERS AGO: They get far too drunk and narrowly avoid getting matching tattoos in New Orleans.

2 SUMMERS AGO: It all goes wrong.

THIS SUMMER: Poppy asks Alex to join her on one last trip. A trip that will determine the rest of their lives.

Wait for It
by Jenn McKinlay
Contemporary, Romance | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
A woman looking for a new lease on life moves to Arizona where she rents a guest house on a gorgeous property with a mysterious owner--a man who teaches her about resilience, courage, and ultimately true love, in this funny, bighearted novel about hope and healing from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay.

Stuck in a dreary Boston winter, Annabelle Martin would like nothing more than to run away from her current life. She's not even thirty years old, twice-divorced, and has just dodged a marriage proposal... from her ex-husband. When she's offered her dream job as creative director at a cutting-edge graphic design studio in Phoenix, she jumps at the opportunity to start over.

When she arrives in the Valley of the Sun, Annabelle is instantly intrigued by her anonymous landlord. Based on the cranky, handwritten notes Nick Daire leaves her, she assumes he is an old, rich curmudgeon. Annabelle is shocked when she finally meets Nick and discovers that he's her age and uses a wheelchair. Nick suffered from a stroke a year ago, and while there's no physical reason for him not to recover, he is struggling to overcome the paralyzing fear that has kept him a prisoner in his own home.

Despite her promise to herself not to get involved, Annabelle finds herself irresistibly drawn to Nick. And soon she wonders if she and Nick might help each other find the courage to embrace life, happiness, and true love.

Very Nice
by Marcy Dermansky
Women's Fiction | Published: 2019 | Goodreads
Rachel Klein never meant to kiss her creative writing professor, but with his long eyelashes, silky hair and the sad, beautiful life he laid bare on Twitter, she does, and the kiss is very nice.

Zahid Azzam never planned to become a houseguest in his student's sprawling Connecticut home, but with the sparkling swimming pool, the endless supply of strawberries and Rachel's beautiful mother, he does, and the home is very nice.

Becca Klein never thought she'd have a love affair so soon after her husband leaves her for a younger woman, but when her daughter's professor walks into her home, bringing with him a poodle named Princess, she does, and the affair turns out to be... a very bad idea.

La Piscine (1969)
The Swimming Pool
Director/Writer: Jacques Deray
Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière
Based on book by: Alain Page
Stars: Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet
Crime, Drama, Romance | imdb
Lovers Marianne and Jean-Paul spend their vacation in a villa on the French Riviera near St-Tropez. Marianne invites her former lover, Harry, and his teenage daughter to stay. Tension rises between them, especially when Jean-Paul seduces Penelope.



~*~ * header image source: A Bigger Splash by David Hockney

* part of Summertime time (schedule)

Summer Vacation

~*~

The Vacation
by T.M. Logan
Thriller, France | Published: 2020 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
Seven days. Three families. One killer.

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday - a group of families enjoying a week together in the sun. Four women who have been best friends for as long as they can remember making the most of a luxurious villa in the south of France.

But Kate has a secret: her husband is having an affair. And a week away might just be the perfect opportunity to get the proof she needs - to catch him in the act once and for all. Because she suspects the other woman is one of her two best friends.

One of them is working against her, willing to sacrifice years of friendship to destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined...

Because someone in the villa may be prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden.

People We Meet on Vacation
by Emily Henry
Romance, Contemporary, Palm Springs | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Summerwater
by Sarah Moss
Thriller, Scotland | Published: 2020 | Goodreads
On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents.

A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a retired couple reminisce about neighbours long since moved on; a teenage boy braves the dark waters of the loch in his red kayak. Each person is wrapped in their own cares but increasingly alert to the makeshift community around them. One particular family, a mother and daughter without the right clothes or the right manners, starts to draw the attention of the others. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls.

In Another Country (2012)
Original title: Da-reun na-ra-e-seo
Director/Screenplay: Sang-soo Hong
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Joon-Sang Yoo
Drama, Korea | imdb | my rating: tba
A three-tiered story centered on a trio of French tourists visiting the same seaside resort.


~*~
* image source: I Hope There's Someone by Ozer Toraman

* part of Summertime time (schedule)

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read
by Emily Henry
narrated by Julia Whelan

Published: 2020
Publisher: Berkley
Paperback: 361
Rating: 4
Romance, Michigan | Goodreads

First sentence(s):
I have a fatal flaw.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They're polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

My two-bits:

The combination of authors, books, bookstores and romance creates that huge smiley face emoji.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Summertime time (schedule)

Lovely Books and Things - 9.27.20

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Falling into the internet rabbit hole about Book Nooks shelf inserts. Inspired to make one. See samples (here).
2. Exploring colors to select for a crochet project. I have to pick out 10 balls of yarn.
3. Sitting under a steampunk goddess at Patricia's Green in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. This is Tara Mechani by artist Dana Albany which is described as a sculpture of a robot-like female Buddha.

~*~

Library: audiobook

Beach Read
by Emily Henry
Romance | Goodreads

Furia
by Yamile Saied Méndez
YA, Sports, South America | Goodreads

~*~
AND watched: on Netflix

The Last Dance (2020)
TV series
Director: Jason Hehir
Stars: Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan
Documentary, Biography, History | imdb | my rating: 5
Charting the rise of the 1990's Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, one of the most notable dynasties in sports history.

SUCH drive and passion. Wow.

AND watched: on Kanopy

The End of the Tour (2015)
Director: James Ponsoldt
Screenplay: Donald Margulies
Based on book by: David Lipsky
Stars: Joan Cusack, Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg
Biography, Drama | imdb | my rating: 5
The story of the five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, which took place right after the 1996 publication of Wallace's groundbreaking epic novel, 'Infinite Jest.'

POIGNANT, loved this insight on the writer.

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

*** THANKS to those on the front line during these times ***
Shelter In Place - Day 195, Week 29

Stay healthy! Be safe!

Thanks for stopping by :-)