Showing posts with label Keith Yatsuhashi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith Yatsuhashi. Show all posts

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi

Kojiki
by Keith Yatsuhashi

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Blog
Twitter

Published: 2016
Publisher: Angry Robot
Genre: Fantasy, SciFi, Japan
Paperback pages: 448
Rating: 3

Kojiki series:
Kojiki
Kokoro

First sentence(s):
Tokyo, Japan
Keiko Yamada lifted her battered thirty-five millimeter camera and held her breath.

Every civilization has its myths. Only one is true.

When eighteen year old Keiko Yamada’s father dies unexpectedly, he leaves behind a one way ticket to Japan, an unintelligible death poem about powerful Japanese spirits and their gigantic, beast-like Guardians, and the cryptic words: “Go to Japan in my place. Find the Gate. My camera will show you the way.”

Alone and afraid, Keiko travels to Tokyo, determined to fulfil her father’s dying wish. There, beneath glittering neon signs, her father’s death poem comes to life. Ancient spirits spring from the shadows. Chaos envelops the city, and as Keiko flees its burning streets, her guide, the beautiful Yui Akiko, makes a stunning confession – that she, Yui, is one of a handful of spirits left behind to defend the world against the most powerful among them: a once noble spirit now insane. Keiko must decide if she will honour her father’s heritage and take her rightful place among the gods.


My two-bits:
Female heroines, love triangle, progeny.
And, there be dragons.

~*~

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

Sunday, November 3, 2019

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)

~*~

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


~*~

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.

~*~

* updated 11/17/19

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Lovely Books and Things - 5.7.17

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

Linking up with:
Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)


~*~

Got back to some YA reading. I did a binge read of the Jenny Han series, To All The Boys I Loved Before. This is a rarity as I usually read the first in a series and get around to the rest at a later date. It was prompted by a book tour for the new release of the last book in the series, Always and Forever, Lara Jean. Loved it all!

Also got back into some Netflixing. And totally got sucked into Sense 8 which is similar to The Matrix series also created by the Wachowskis. Takes the interconnectedness theme onto another level.

Today, I will start Caroline Leavitt's Cruel Beautiful World which is (per the cover blurb):

"A gorgeous, seductive novel that is also terrifying and pulse-pounding."
-Wiley Cash, author of The Dark Road to Mercy

Ooo, looks like I am in for a wild ride now.

~*~

Author event:

Books Inc. of Opera Plaza, San Francisco and NYMBC presented The Love Panel of YA authors and moderated by Christy, YA blogger for Tales of the Ravenous Reader. Along with a Q&A session, introductions to each of their new novel releases were presented.

Seated above are:
Nina LaCour, author of We Are Okay
Stacey Lee, author of The Secret Heart of a Note
Elizabeth Eulberg, author of Just Another Girl
Jennifer E. Smith, author of Windfall
Rachel Cohn, author of Kill All Happies

Bought:

Just Another Girl
by Elizabeth Eulberg
-YA
Amazon | Goodreads

Elizabeth said the cover illustration is inspired by Rube Goldberg contraptions.

Windfall
by Jennifer E. Smith
-YA
Amazon | Goodreads

Jennifer said the bear and alligator on her book cover are not charms, but little figures painted in gold.

Kill All Happies
by Rachel Cohn
-YA
Amazon | Goodreads

Rachel said she loves the image of the french fries on her book cover as it resembles being flicked "the finger" - LOL.

A History of Loneliness
by John Boyne
-Literary
Amazon | Goodreads

PICKED this up for a book club I am going to try out. Not something I would get on my own. So, yes, expanding my reading palette. Hope I like it.

Into the Water
by Paula Hawkins
-Mystery, Thriller
Amazon | Goodreads

HOT book. Going to also read it for the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge (here). Because I loved Girl on the Train I am looking forward to gobbling this one up.

Kojiki
(Kojiki #1)
by Keith Yatsuhashi
-SciFi
Amazon | Goodreads

HAD to get this after I got Kokoro earlier in the week as this is first in the series.

Kokoro
(Kojiki #2)
by Keith Yatsuhashi
-SciFi
Amazon | Goodreads

IMPULSE buy. Rarely do this, but the cover just GOT me. Also, I want to read some SciFi this year.


For Review:

A Short History of the Girl Next Door
by Jared Reck
-Humor, YA
Release date: September 26, 2017
courtesy of tour -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads

THIS comes out in the Fall and has an interesting premise...

A debut that is perfect for readers who are stuck in that awkward limbo between childhood and adulthood (and those who just barely escaped).


In my mailbox:


GOT some snail mail. A Thank you card. And, a lovely letter in response to my April Writing Month efforts. It is on super cute stationery which has a pop-up character on the page!


AND watched: in theatre

The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
Director: Niki Caro
Screenplay: Angela Workman
Based on book by: Diane Ackerman
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Daniel Brühl
-Biography, Drama, History | imdb | my rating: 5

The Zookeeper's Wife tells the account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the German invasion.

GREAT story based on a true historical account from diaries of Antonina Żabińska.


AND binge watching: on Netflix

Sense 8 (2015)
tv series, season one
Creators: J. Michael Straczynski, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Starring: Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai
Tuppence Middleton, Max Riemelt, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Brian J. Smith, Aml Ameen
Daryl Hannah, Naveen Andrews
-Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi | imdb | my rating: 5

A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world's order.

JUST the right amount of mystery, action, romance, drama and variety of likable characters to get me hooked. You can guess what I will be watching next week...

~*~

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

:-)
 
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