Tournament of Books 2022

Tournament of Books
Rooster Award for best fiction
sponsored by Field Notes and Bookshop
details | daily
annual self challenge
winner announced on March 31
~*~
WINNER: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
~*~
THE SHORTLIST:

All's Well
by Mona Awad
Literary, Horror | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
interesting dark Shakespeare themed vibe

Beautiful World, Where Are You
by Sally Rooney
Literary, Ireland | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
making sense of love, romance, relationships

The Book of Form and Emptiness
by Ruth Ozeki
Literary, Magical Realism | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

The Echo Wife
by Sarah Gailey
SciFi, Thriller | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
to be human

In Concrete
by Anne Garréta
translated by Emma Ramadan
Literary | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
loved the word play

Intimacies
by Katie Kitamura
Literary, Mystery | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4

Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Literary, Dystopian | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
ugly observations of being human

Libertie
by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Historical, African American | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4

Matrix
by Lauren Groff
Literary, Historical | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
women in power

Nervous System: A Novel
by Lina Meruane
translated by Megan McDowell
Literary, Medical | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
science, math and illness

No One Is Talking about This
by Patricia Lockwood
Literary, Fantasy | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

Several People Are Typing
by Calvin Kasulke
Humor, SciFi | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

Subdivision
by J. Robert Lennon
Mystery, Surreal | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

The Trees
by Percival Everett
Literary, Mystery | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

When We Cease to Understand the World
by Benjamín Labatut
translated by Adrian Nathan West
Short Stories, Historical | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
Play-in round books:

The Confession of Copeland Cane
by Keenan Norris
SciFi | Published: 2021 | Goodreads | my rating: 4
struggles of being a future young black boy and continued issues

Our Country Friends
by Gary Shteyngart
Literary | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

The Sentence
by Louise Erdrich
Magical Realism | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

Lovely Books and Things - 6.23.18

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

~*~
HAPPY THINGS:

1. Author events - attended more than one this week

2. Dinner made by the kid - although a simple fare, it was nice to be served

3. Organizing the book shelves - currently most books are kinda sorta grouped together by genre (but not in alpha order) and by recently acquired (basically uncategorized)

~*~
Bought:

Florida
by Lauren Groff
-Short Stories, Literary
Amazon | Goodreads
BOOK Passage Corte Madera hosted a literary lunch with Lauren Groff to present Florida. Lauren spoke about the love/hate relationship of Florida living.

Another Sun
by Timothy Williams
-Mystery, Caribbean
Amazon | Goodreads
JULY pick for the Foreign Intrigue Book Club (here).


Author events:

A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza
-Literary, Family, India, Muslim
Amazon | Goodreads
BOOK Passage SF at the Ferry Building hosted a Q&A with Fatima Farheen Mirza to discuss A Place for Us. Neat to see and hear from her family and friends in the audience.

The 57 Bus
A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
by Dashka Slater
-LGBTQ, True Crime, YA
Amazon | Goodreads
THE SF Main library hosted a Q&A with author, Dashka Slater, to introduce her recently released book, The 57 Bus. One of the interesting topics discussed was about gender neutral pronouns.


AND watched: on DVD

Ginger Snaps (2000)
Director/Writer: John Fawcett
Writer: Karen Walton
Stars: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche
-Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Werewolves | imdb | my rating: 5
Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.

UNDERLYING girl power and strong coming-of-age messages in this one.

Last Call Pitches (2017)
Pitch Perfect 3
Director: Trish Sie
Screenplay: Kay Cannon, Mike White
Based on book by: Mickey Rapkin
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp
-Comedy, Music | imdb | my rating: 4
Following their win at the world championship, the now separated Bellas reunite for one last singing competition at an overseas USO tour, but face a group who uses both instruments and voices.

FUN addition to this series that has a great action sequence with the Bellas singing to the tune of Toxic by Britney Spears.


AND watched: in theatre

Attraction (2017)
Prityazhenie (original title)
Director: Fedor Bondarchuk
Screenplay: Oleg Malovichko, Andrey Zolotarev
Stars: Irina Starshenbaum, Alexander Petrov, Rinal Mukhametov, Oleg Menshikov
-Romance, Sci-Fi, Aliens, Russia | imdb | my rating: 4
After an alien ship crash lands onto a Russian city, many who saw it and the occupants start to question their own existence while there are those who demand the aliens leave Earth.

ACTION packed sci-fi/alien, YA romance in Russia with environmental and political issues hovering in the background. Some cool special effects sprinkled throughout.

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Love-A-Thon Mini-challenge #3: Book Spine Poetry

Love-A-Thon
February 20-21, 2016
hosted by:
Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books
Cee @ The Novel Hermit
Hazel @ Stay Bookish
Mel @ The Daily Prophecy
One of the most popular Love-a-Thon challenges is returning this year! All you have to do is create book spine poetry. (If you guys don’t know what that is, it’s basically using book titles to write your own poems.) You can type out titles, take a photo, or design a collage. All creative ideas are encouraged!

fates and furies
postcards from the sky
the cuckoo's calling
soundless worlds of ink and shadow

~*~
* links to more book spine poetry (here)

* image source: aurora borealis

* Love-A-Thon schedule

Stacking the Shelves - 12.12.15

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~*~
Bought:

Fates and Furies
by Lauren Groff
-Literary
Amazon | Goodreads
For Review:

The One-of-a-Kind Cat Book
by Ciye Cho
-Cats, Illustrated
courtesy of author -Thanks!
Goodreads

The Word Game
by Steena Holmes
-Women's Fiction
courtesy of BookSparks Fall Reading Challenge 2015 @booksparks #FRC2015 -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
Freebies:

Never Never (part 1 of 3)
by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
-Romance, YA
free for kindle
Amazon | Goodreads

Princesses Behaving Badly
Real Stories From History - Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
-Historical, Feminism
courtesy of publisher Quirk's Quirksgiving Challenge -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
Library:

Throne of Glass
by Sarah J. Maas
-Fantasy, Romance, YA
Amazon | Goodreads
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

=====> FINALLY going to start this series that continues to get rave reviews left and right!

OTHER things on my shelf: kinda book-related

Going to participate in this...

First Book Of The Year 2016
hosted by Book Journey (details)
AND watched: on DVD

Got into a robot sci-fi mood...

Ex Machina (2015)
Director: Alex Garland
Written by: Alex Garland
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac
-Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi | imdb | my rating: 5
A young programmer is selected to participate in a groundbreaking experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I.

=====> Scary. Just how far do we want robots to affect and "be" in our world?

Robocop (2014)
Director: José Padilha
Written by: Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton
-Action, SciFi, Thriller | imdb | my rating: 4
In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy - a loving husband, father and good cop - is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.

=====> Very small part-man and lots of robot parts. A little more control of this robot made him more palatable.

AND binge watching:

Broadchurch (2015)
tv series, season two
Creator: Chris Chibnall
Starring: David Tennant, Olivia Colman
-Murder Mystery, UK | imdb
=====> The story continues from season one. MUST watch season one before this otherwise you will be spoiled.

This season continues the sort of surreal vibe and lush coloring that is in season one in regards to presentation. Love it.

There are two story lines which are equally interesting to follow. And the ensemble cast includes characters that are also equally engaging.

~*~
* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

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

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers

Books and Fashion Week

Chiara Boni La Petite Robe Spring 2016
& The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (goodreads)
from BuzzFeed Books books and fashion pairings (more here)
In tribute to the Fall season Fashion Weeks...

New York: September 10-17, 2015
London: September 18-22, 2015
Milan: September 23-29, 2015
Paris: September 30-October 7, 2015

I wanted to share books and fashion mashups.

This set of fashion pairings were inspired by New York Fashion Week and created at BuzzFeed Books (complete list here)

Son Jung Wan Spring 2016 & Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (goodreads)
=====> Found this one on the list that is in my tbr pile!

Leanne Marshall Spring 2016 & California by Edan Lepucki (goodreads)
=====> This one is amusing. It is also a book on my backburner tbr list.

The Blonds Spring/Summer 2015 & The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (goodreads)
=====> This is from last year's mashups that wow-ed me (see complete list here). Also, a book in my tbr pile.

Tommy Hilfiger Spring/Summer 2015 & Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (goodreads)
=====> This is another from last year which I thought was a cute number. I read this book last year (review).

~*~
Book Riot (here) added book accessories to the 2015 Emmy runway. These are all on my want list.

Dascha Polanco in Leanne Marshall, book accessory A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (goodreads)
=====> This book is currently part of Man Booker Prize 2015 short list (here) and was on The Shortlist for The Morning News 2015 Tournament of Books (here).

David and Jessica Oyelowo, book accessory The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler (goodreads)

~*~
Fiction to Fashion (here) has assembled not only clothes but accessories to match up with books. Here are a couple that caught my eye.

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (goodreads)
=====> I will be reading this one very soon :-)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (goodreads)
=====> Loved this one and can't wait to see the film adaptation.

A Darker Shade of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab (goodreads)


~*~
* see my previous post of Book Covers and Fashion Week (here)

* found the links to Book Riot and Buzzfeed at Thoughts from an Evil Overlord (here).

* feel free to share any links you know of that has married books and fashion