Lovely Books and Things - 5.29.22

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update

Linking up with:
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)

~*~

HAPPY THINGS:

1. Yerba Buena outdoor summer free concert series: Gamelan Sekar Jaya (here)
2. National Hamburger Day (yesterday) with a burger from Violet's (here)
3. Received the Forbidden Fiber Co. (here) Sunnyvale mystery cross stich box of goodies inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer fyi: the box is no longer available but the kit, chart patterns and threads will be in the shop for a limited time

~*~
Bought:

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You
by Ariel Delgado Dixon
Contemporary, Thriller, LGBTQ | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
Library:

Easy Beauty
by Chloe Cooper Jones
Memoir, Disability | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Time Is A Mother
by Ocean Vuong
Poetry, LGBTQ, Vietnamese American | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
~*~
Virtual Author event: hosted by bookreporter
See archive of this (here)

Two Nights in Lisbon
by Chris Pavone
Mystery, Thriller, Portugal | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

The Paris Library
by Janet Skeslien Charles
Historical, WWII, France | Goodreads
~*~
AND watched: theatre

Men (2022)
Director/ Writer: Alex Garland
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear
Drama, Horror, SciFi, England | imdb | my rating: 4
creepy, with beautiful cottage setting
A young woman goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside following the death of her ex-husband.

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Happy Blogoversary Month

Happy Blogoversary Month
the big 13

Celebrating my book blogging years by reflecting on 13 books that stood out.

*+* 2009 *+*

Flowers in the Attic
by V.C. Andrews | Goodreads
the book that triggered the creation of this blog
*+* 2010 *+*

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson | Goodreads
blew my mind in regards to the mystery thriller genre
*+* 2011 *+*

Random Magic
by Sasha Soren | Goodreads
sparked a bunch of whimsy with author and virtual events on the blog
*+* 2012 *+*

Fifty Shades of Grey
by E.L. James | Goodreads
fun hype and hullabaloo
*+* 2013 *+*

A Spear of Summer Grass
by Deanna Raybourn | Goodreads
for the ambiance
*+* 2014 *+*

A Discovery of Witches
by Deborah Harkness | Goodreads
discovered and fell for this paranormal crew
*+* 2015 *+*

All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr | Goodreads
beautiful ugly
*+* 2016 *+*

A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara | Goodreads
emotional punches
*+* 2017 *+*

Eileen
by Ottessa Moshfegh | Goodreads
wow!
*+* 2018 *+*

Crazy Rich Asians
by Kevin Kwan | Goodreads
escape into a world of wealth with all its complications and drama
*+* 2019 *+*

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tokarczuk | Goodreads
championing the horrors of our world
*+* 2020 *+*

The Snow Leopard
by Peter Matthiessen | Goodreads
first co-read with fellow book blogger, Naida at the bookworm
*+* Honorable Mention *+*

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong | Goodreads
beautiful and moving passages of painful memories
~*~
* image header source: cover for The Widow Cliquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong

Published: 2019
Publisher: Penguin Press
Genre: Literary, Poetry, LGBTQ, Asian American, Vietnamese, Connecticut
Hardback: 246
Rating: 5
Goodreads
Website

First sentence(s):
Let me begin again.

Zombie sighting:
Mai, who had driven all night from Florida, shuffled through the rooms, cooking food and making tea in a zombie-like daze.
-page 198

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

My two-bits:
Gorgeously done in epistolary form with beautiful and moving passages filled with painful memories of the past.

~*~
* part of Books and States challenge (here): Connecticut

Blog All About It: Crunch

Hollow Kingdom
by Kira Jane Buxton
-Dystopia, Humor, Zombies | Goodreads

READ: with favorite crunchy snack - Cheetos

So, I was forced to bring in the big guns: Cheetos, those delectable, radioactive poofs.
-chapter 5, page 27


CRUNCH SIGHTINGS:

Hunger
A Memoir of (My) Body
by Roxane Gay
-Memoir | Goodreads

I can still remember the crunch of it beneath my bare feet as I snuck out the next morning.
-chapter 26

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
-Literary, Poetry, LGBTQ | Goodreads

"I don't need to read," you said, your expression crunched, and pushed away from the table.
-chapter 1, page 5


EAT:

Cap'n Crunch cookie
from Jane on Fillmore

LOL:

Cap'n Crunch's
Halloween Crunch
Ghosts Turn Your Milk GREEN!
~*~
* part of the Blog All About It Challenge (here)

Lovely Books and Things - 9.8.19

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

~*~
HAPPY THINGS:

1. Celebrating friends on their birthday

2. Shakespeare in the Park - I love this annual event held at the Presidio. These productions are usually a contemporary version of the plays but still retaining Shakespeare-speak. This year's show is a musical version of As You Like It.

3. Downton Abbey tea event in anticipation for the film release, September 20, 2019

~*~
Library: FOR Books and States reading challenge

America is for Beginners
by Leah Franqui
-Contemporary, Road Trip, India | Goodreads

The Summer Demands
by Deborah Shapiro
-LGBT | Goodreads

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
-Literary, Poetry, LGBTQ, Asian American, Vietnamese, Connecticut | Goodreads

Review posts theme for next week: Japan
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono
Me by Tomoyuki Hoshino
The Sea of Japan by Keita Nagano
The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima


AND watched: in theatre

Midsommar (2019)
Director/Writer: Ari Aster
Stars: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper
-Drama, Horror, Mystery | imdb | my rating: 5
A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown's fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

LOVED it just as much as the theatrical version. Certain things that were previously hinted are more outright. And one scene was slipped back in which provided more meaning to things that occur later in the film.

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

Thanks for stopping by :-)