Lovely Books and Things - 6.11.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

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

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. Egg and cheese on a Buttermilk Malt Biscuit from Bazaar Cafe - Brews. Bundts. Biscuits. (and banjos …) (here)
2. Gifted an Inspector Gamache themed coffee from Brome Lake Books, Knowlton, Quebec, Canada (here) one of the towns that inspired Three Pines in Louise Penny's Gamache series. My reading buddy for this series happened to be in that area while traveling.
3. Finished fun puzzle image - Sugar Daddy by Pezel Puzzles (photo by Tori Annesley)

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Bought:

The Brutal Telling
by Louise Penny
Mystery, Canada | Published: 2009 | Goodreads

Library: audiobook

Bones of Hilo
by Eric Redman
Mystery, Hawaii | Published: 2021 | Goodreads
Library:

Violets
by Kyung-sook Shin
translated by Anton Hur
LGBTQ, Historical, Korea | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
For Review:

Out of the Blue
by Jason June
Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQ | Published: May 2022 | Goodreads
courtesy of publisher -Thanks!
yes, that's a merman ;-)
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In-store Author event: hosted by Books Inc., Opera Plaza

Happy-Go-Lucky
by David Sedaris
Memoir, Essays, Humor | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Mother Noise
by Cindy House
Memoir, Essays | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
Virtual Author event: Upcoming Fall/Winter books hosted by Buzz Books (here) | see panel archive

Nubia: The Awakening
by Omar Epps, Clarence A. Haynes
Fantasy, YA | Published: November 2022 | Goodreads

Anne of Greenville
by Mariko Tamaki
YA, Retelling, LGBTQ | Published: October 2022 | Goodreads

Queen Among the Dead
by Lesley Livingston
Fantasy, YA | Published: January 2023 | Goodreads

The Davenports
by Krystal Marquis
Historical, YA | Published: January 2023 | Goodreads
note: not a final cover, but i liked it so much i wanted to show this version
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AND watched: theatre

Montana Story (2021)
Director/Writer: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Writer: Mike Spreter
Stars: Haley Lu Richardson, Owen Teague
Drama | imdb | my rating: 4
western vibe, beautiful, sad, hopeful
Two estranged siblings return home to the sprawling ranch they once knew and loved, confronting a deep and bitter family legacy against a mythic American backdrop.


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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

May flowers: Violets

Violets
by Kyung-sook Shin
translated by Anton Hur
LGBTQ, Historical, Korea | Published: 2022 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
We join San in 1970s rural South Korea, a young girl ostracised from her community. She meets a girl called Namae, and they become friends until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of physical intimacy in a minari field, Namae violently rejects San, setting her on a troubling path of quashed desire and isolation.

We next meet San, aged twenty-two, as she starts a job in a flower shop. There, we are introduced to a colourful cast of characters, including the shop's mute owner, the other florist Su-ae, and the customers that include a sexually aggressive businessman and a photographer, who San develops an obsession for. Throughout, San's moment with Namae lingers in the back of her mind.

~*~ CLASSIC SCENE:

A Room With A View
by E.M. Forester
Classics, Historical, Romance, Italy | Published: 2000 (first 1908) | Goodreads
At the same moment the ground gave way, and with a cry she fell out of the wood. Light and beauty enveloped her. She had fallen on to a little open terrace, which was covered with violets from end to end.

“Courage!” cried her companion, now standing some six feet above. “Courage and love.”

She did not answer. From her feet the ground sloped sharply into view, and violets ran down in rivulets and streams and cataracts, irrigating the hillside with blue, eddying round the tree stems collecting into pools in the hollows, covering the grass with spots of azure foam. But never again were they in such profusion; this terrace was the well-head, the primal source whence beauty gushed out to water the earth.

Standing at its brink, like a swimmer who prepares, was the good man. But he was not the good man that she had expected, and he was alone.

George had turned at the sound of her arrival. For a moment he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He saw radiant joy in her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her. -Chapter 6

~*~ WATCH: on Netflix

Violet Evergarden (2018)
tv mini series Stars: Yui Ishikawa, Erika Harlacher, Raissa Bueno
Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Japan | imdb
In the aftermath of a great war, Violet Evergarden, a young female ex-soldier, gets a job at a writers' agency and goes on assignments to create letters that can connect people.

SOMETHING TASTY:

Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin

Please Look After Mother
by Kyung-Sook Shin
transalated by Chi-Young Kim

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website

Published: 2012
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Family, Korea
Paperback: 272 pages
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
It's been one week since Mom went missing.

MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE WINNER

When sixty-nine-year-old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mom?

Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, Please Look After Mom is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.

My two-bits:

How well do we (can we) ever know close loved ones? This story presents the question through the voices of different family members in regards to a mother.

Spoken in first person mode with each family member, the inner feelings and reflections give a complete picture of the mother.

Snapshots of living in the city and countryside of South Korea provide some insight into the place and culture.

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* part of Korean Book Challenge