The Need by Helen Phillips

The Need
by Helen Phillips

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Published: July 2019
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Horror, Thriller, SciFi
Hardback: 272
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
She crouched in front of the mirror in the dark, clinging to them.

When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows.

But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement.

Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.

My two-bits:

A touch of science fiction and perfect creepiness for a mother-related thriller.

~*~
* weekly theme: Mothers - protagonist is a mother of a newborn

Lovely Books and Things - 7.20.19

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

~*~
HAPPY THINGS:

1. Yummy classic ramen at Ippudo (here) - this place always has a long line, but we decided to give it the wait and it turned out to be a delicious delight

2. Picking up a lucky penny

3. Member's Preview night at SF MOMA - Silver Clouds from the Andy Warhol exhibit

~*~
Bought:

Fixer Chao
by Han Ong
-Literary, LGBTQ, Filipino | Goodreads
FOR a future Filipino themed self reading challenge.


Author event:

The Bindery hosted a reading and Q&A with author, Helen Phillips, to celebrate the release of The Need.

The Need
by Helen Phillips
-Horror, Thriller | Goodreads

Library:

Less
by Andrew Sean Greer
-Contemporary, LGBTQ | Goodreads
FOR the hype and it is a Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2018.

Waiting For Monsieur Bellivier
by Britta Röstlund
-Contemporary, France, Paris | Goodreads

Paris Letters
One woman's journey from the fast lane
to a slow stroll in Paris
by Janice Macleod
-Memoir, France, Paris | Goodreads
BOTH for Paris in July. BTW: I updated the post with a couple pictures (here).


AND watched: in theatre

Tattoo Uprising (2019)
Director: Alan Grovenar
Featuring: Ed Hardy
-Documentary, Art | website | my rating: 5
The history of American tattoos is, like that of any other art form, driven through movements and generations. In TATTOO UPRISING, which carefully studies the work of extraordinary American tattoo artists such as Ed Hardy, Stoney St. Clair, and Jamie Summers, we see how American tattooing art and culture evolved and grew through these young visionaries and tattoo masters alike. Also featuring Werner Herzog and Les Blank.

WANTED to see this before going to the “Ed Hardy: Deeper than Skin“ exhibit at the de Young Museum, July 13, 2019 – October 6, 2019.

Wonderful dose of American history and culture of the tattoo phenomena.

Kill Bill: volume 1 (2003)
Director/Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Actor/Writer: Uma Thurman
Based on book by:
Stars: David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen
-Action, Crime, Thriller | imdb | my rating: 5
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

DID a re-watch to prep for the upcoming Tarantino release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Loved this mashup of things western, Japanese and revenge.


AND watched: in theatre for Hong Kong Film Festival (here)

The Lady Improper (2019)
Director/Screenplay: Tsui Shan Tsang
Original story: Link Sng
Writer: Anna Yuet Shan Lai
Stars: Charlene Choi, Kang Ren Wu, Kwok Keung Cheung
-Drama, Hong Kong | imdb | my rating: 5
Siu Man is a nurse who has lost who she is as a person. Her marriage has ended partly due to her fear of intimacy and, having been abandoned by her husband, she now faces losing her father after he is hospitalised. Siu Man decides to reboot her life by taking over her father's restaurant but without the experience of being a chef, she has to hire someone. In steps Chia-hao, a Paris-trained cordon bleu chef, who is a free spirit but also treats cooking as serious philosophy and is able to recreate her father's culinary style. It seems that the handsome chef cooks up a storm in and out of the kitchen as he helps Siu Man learn to deliver delicious food and his delicious looks arouses her desire. Through him, Siu Man faces her fear of intimacy head-on and liberates herself.

LIKED how this character came into her own. Quite sexy with steamy scenes and I heard that some parts were edited out for some screenings in China.


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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Lovely Books and Things - 4.6.19

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

~*~
HAPPY THINGS:

1. Finding clarity after being in a dream haze

2. Bringing out the spring clothes

3. Spotting something red and fuzzy at the bus stop

~*~
Author event:

Booksmith hosted an event featuring Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance with co-editor Edie Meidav and local contributors Carolyn Cooke, Sarah Ladipo Manyika and Melinda Misuraca.

Strange Attractors:
Lives Changed by Chance
edited by Edie Meidav and Emmalie Dropkin
-short stories | Goodreads
Has a stunning surprise or lucky encounter ever propelled you in an unanticipated direction? Are you doing what you always thought you would be doing with your life or has some unseen magnetism changed your course? And has that redirection come to seem inevitable? Edie Meidav and Emmalie Dropkin asked leading contemporary writers to consider these questions, which they characterize through the metaphor of "the strange attractor," a scientific theory describing an inevitable occurrence that arises out of chaos. Meidav's introduction and the thirty-five pieces collected here offer imaginative, arresting, and memorable replies to this query, including guidance from a yellow fish, a typewriter repairman, a cat, a moose, a bicycle, and a stranger on a train. Absorbing and provocative, this is nonfiction to be read in batches and bursts and returned to again and again.


Freebies: ARC and review copies from local book shop :-)

An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good
by Helene Tursten
translated by Marlaine Delargy
-Mystery, Short Stories, Sweden | Goodreads
COULD not resist a scandinavian mystery.

The Stationery Shop
by Marjan Kamali
-Literary, Iran | Goodreads
LOVE the setting - book and stationery shop.

The Need
by Helen Phillips
-Horror, Thriller | Goodreads
CURIOUS about this horror and motherhood theme.

The Lager Queen of Minnesota
by J. Ryan Stradal
-Contemporary Fiction, Food | Goodreads
FOODIE in me is drawn to this one.

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
by Juliet Grames
-Historical, Italy | Goodreads
THAT title.

Vox
by Christina Dalcher
-Dystopia, Feminism | Goodreads
PREMISE grabs in regards to women not allowed to speak.


AND watched: in theatre

Won't You Be My Neighbor (2018)
Director: Morgan Neville
Stars: Fred Rogers
-Documentary, Biography | imdb | my rating: 5
An exploration of the life, lessons, and legacy of iconic children's television host, Fred Rogers.

WHAT a kind, gentle and wonderful person who touched so many lives.

The Invisibles (2017)
Die Unsichtbaren (original title)
Director/Screenplay: Claus Räfle
Screenplay: Alejandra López
Stars: Max Mauff, Alice Dwyer, Ruby O. Fee, Aaron Altaras, Victoria Schulz
-Biography, Drama, History, Germany | imdb | my rating: 5
While Joseph Goebbels infamously declared Berlin "free of Jews" in 1943, 1,700 managed to survive in the Nazi capital through the end of WWII. The Invisibles traces the stories of four young people who learned to hide in plain sight.

WOW, interesting bit of history.


AND watched: on DVD

Meru (2015)
Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Stars: Conrad Anker, Grace Chin, Jimmy Chin
-Documentary, Action, Adventure | imdb | my rating: 5
Three elite climbers struggle to find their way through obsession and loss as they attempt to climb Mount Meru, one of the most coveted prizes in the high stakes game of Himalayan big wall climbing.

WANTED to see this after watching Free Solo as I like the directors work. The film footage was just as breathtaking and nail biting ;-)


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

Thanks for stopping by :-)