Lovely Books and Things - 8.30.20

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. Independent Bookstore Day, August 29, online author events (details)
2. Schnitzel (recipe) and noodles - a favorite thing from The Sound of Music :-)
3. Setting up an arm chair travel theme for September. Will start off the month with The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel.

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Library: audiobook

The Summer Country
by Lauren Willig
Historical, Victorian, Barbados | Goodreads

Freebies: from Free Little Library

The Broken Kingdoms
by N.K. Jemison
Fantasy | Goodreads

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Virtual Author event: hosted by Booksmith
Listen to archive of this and check out their calendar for future free author events (here)
A conversation between:

Ballistic Kiss
by Richard Kadrey
Urban Fantasy | Goodreads

Shakespeare for Squirrels
by Christopher Moore
Humor Fantasy | Goodreads
A conversation between:

The Great Offshore Grounds
by Vanessa Veselka
Literary | Goodreads

Pull of the Stars
by Emma Donoghue
Historical, Ireland | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore
Listen to archive of this and check out their calendar for future free author events (here)

A conversation between:

Winter Counts
by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Mystery, Thriller | Goodreads

Blacktop Wasteland
by S.A. Cosby
Mystery, Thriller | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: hosted by Book Passages
Listen to archive of this and check out their calendar for future free author events (here)

The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls
by Ursula Hegi
Historical, Germany | Goodreads

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AND watched: in virtual theatre

John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020)
Director: Dawn Porter
Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
The film explores Georgia representative's, 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration.

VOTE

Readalong update:

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen | Goodreads
co-read with Naida at the the bookworm

Aug 17-23: Prologue & chapter 1
I got halfway through the introduction and decided to stop as it was getting too spoilery for me. I will get back to it later along with the acknowledgments which was also part of the front matter of the book.

Enjoying the details of the trek and learning about the various members of the party and how they function.

Aug 24-30: chapter 2
Importance of a good comfortable pair of hiking boots made an impression. Similar to what I found when I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Love his writing style. Felt the cold, danger and beauty of the Himalayas as the search for the Blue Sheep and Snow Leopard continue.

"I am here to be here, like these rocks and sky and snow, like this hail that is falling down out of the sun." -page 108

Liked the reference and thoughts about the Yeti.

Aug 31-Sep 6: chapter 3

Sep 7-13: chapter 4 & wrap-up

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* 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 167, Week 25
Stay healthy! Be safe!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

San Francisco and France

Legion of Honor
Fine Arts Museum | Website
The Legion of Honor museum is a French neoclassical building inspired by the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris. The courtyard includes Rodin's The Thinker and a glass pyramid skylight reminiscent of the one at the Louvre.

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Here are shots from the French Quarter of San Francisco.

"Paris of the Pacific" was the name given to San Francisco during the 1850s Gold Rush when French immigrants sailed to SF bringing their expertise in products that the miners needed, along with skills, stores, food, salons and culture -per Consulate General of France in San Francisco

Cafe Claude
French restaurant with Left Bank vibe and live music | Website

Café de la Presse
for French breakfast and brunch | Website

a Tabac store, Brasserie and Hotel des Arts
located on Bush Street (and Grant Avenue)
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French San Francisco
by Claudine Chalmers
History | Goodreads
Nineteenth-century California was not a destination for the faint of heart, and Frenchmen are usually said to prefer their slippers to their traveling boots. Yet many visitors from France--starting in 1786 with legendary explorer Count de LapAA(c)rouse--made their way to the remote and beautiful territory, leaving enduring accounts and images of their experience. As France's troubled revolutionary era began in the 1840s, tens of thousands of Frenchmen journeyed to California's goldfields. Some found wealth, others freedom, and some death. Many remained in San Francisco, helping shape the city and make it French from the inside.

French character in San Francisco story:

Frog Music
by Emma Donoghue
Historical, Mystery, San Francisco | Goodreads
Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead.

The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice--if he doesn't track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers, and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women, and damaged children. It's the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts.

In thrilling, cinematic style, FROG MUSIC digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue's lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other.

DID YOU KNOW?

San Francisco Book Company
since 1997
an English language bookshop
located in the heart of the Left Bank of Paris | Website
Definitely a place to visit while there ;-)

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* part of Paris in July (here)

Lovely Books and Things - 9.22.19

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

~*~
HAPPY THINGS:

1. Listening to Billie Eilish's Bad Guy --- duh

2. Eating Mid-Autumn Festival Chinese Mooncakes

3. Pre-dawn photography session at the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza bus pad - shadows

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Author event:

A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
-Historical, Russia, Moscow | Goodreads
Bookshop in West Portal won an instagram challenge which granted them a visit from Amor Towles for Q&A.

Bookshop West Portal
Winner of the #agentlemaninmoscowcontest
hosted by Penguin Books

Akin
author: by Emma Donoghue
-Historical, Mystery, France | Goodreads
Bookshop in West Portal hosted a Q&A with Emma Donoghue to celebrate her new release, Akin.


Library:

Supper Club
by Lara Williams
-Contemporary, Feminism | Goodreads
THIS blurb got me…

A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: if you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into?

Savage Appetites
Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession
by Rachel Monroe
-True Crime | Goodreads
SOME dark matter with women.

Fox 8
by George Saunders
-Short story | Goodreads
IMPULSE pick up from library shelf.


AND watched: on DVD

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2010)
Une bouteille à la mer (original title)
Director/Writer: Thierry Binisti
Writer: Valérie Zenatti
Stars: Agathe Bonitzer, Mahmud Shalaby, Hiam Abbass
-Drama | imdb | my rating: 5
Tal is 17 years old. Naim is 20. She's Israeli. He's Palestinian. She lives in Jerusalem. He lives in Gaza. They were born in a land of scorched earth, where fathers bury their children. They must endure an explosive situation that is not of their choosing at an age where young people are falling in love and taking their place in adult life. A bottle thrown in the sea and a correspondence by email nurture the slender hope that their relationship might give them the strength to confront this harsh reality to grapple with it, and thereby ever so slightly change it. Only 60 miles separate them but how many bombings, check-points, sleepless nights and bloodstained days stand between them?

ELEMENTS of friendship, hope, peace permeate throughout.

Rocketman (2019)
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Writer: Lee Hall
Stars: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden
-Biography, Drama, Music | imdb | my rating: 5
A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.

FANTASTICAL musical rendition (with favorite hit songs) of Elton John's life from childhood to present had some sad but feel good moments.

IT chapter 2 (2019)
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writers: Gary Dauberman
Based on book by: Stephen King
Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader
-Drama, Fantasy, Horror | imdb | my rating: 4
Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.

FACING fears and a certain clown equals scary times.

Downton Abbey (2019)
Director: Michael Engler
Writer: Julian Fellowes
Based on tv series: Downton Abbey
-Drama | imdb | my rating: 5
The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century.

LOTS of smiling, chuckling, snickering while watching Downton Abbey in a tizzy for preparation and hosting responsibilities for the King and Queen of England.

Ms. Purple (2019)
Director/Writer: Justin Chon
Writer: Chris Dinh
Stars: Jake Choi, Tiffany Chu, Mark Krenik
-Drama, American Korean | imdb | my rating: 5
MS. PURPLE, from award-winning filmmaker Justin Chon (Gook), is the poignant story of the family loyalties of an Asian American brother and sister, set in a dreamy vision of Los Angeles’ Koreatown, reminiscent of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love.

Kasie (Tiffany Chu) struggles to take care of her comatose father at home, refusing to put him in hospice, because he raised her and her brother when their mother abandoned them. Kasie works as a Koreatown karaoke hostess, making good money keeping obnoxious drunken businessmen happy, and is well able to handle herself, but when her father’s in-home nurse quits, she is desperate. She calls her estranged brother Carey (Teddy Lee) to come home and help care for their father, and he agrees. As they reconnect over their dying father, Kasie and Carey confront the deep emotional wounds of their difficult shared past, attempting to mend their relationship.

Winner, Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature, Dallas International Film Festival.

This screening included a Q&A session with Tiffany Chu (actor), Alex Chi (producer) and moderated by Masashi Niwano, Festival & Exhibition Director at the Center for Asian American Media.

BEAUTIFULLY done with colors, soundtrack and quiet scenes.

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)