Lovely Books and Things - 5.24.20

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

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HAPPY THINGS:

1. Three-day weekend :-)

2. Mini doodle-a-day in my bullet journal

3. Baby Chef Kobe of Kobe Eats on instagram (here) - so adorable

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Bought:

Dancing in the Lowcountry
by James Villa
-Contemporary, Romance, Southern | Goodreads

Library: audiobook

Weather
by Jenny Offill
-Literary, New York | Goodreads

NOTE: Most of the virtual author events below are recorded and can be currently accessed for a listen - check per site

Virtual Author event: hosted by Alta Magazine
Check out their calendar for future free author events (here)
Tune in Wednesdays 12:30pm pst Alta Asks

Maggie Brown & Others: Stories
by Peter Orner
Short Stories | Goodreads
Virtual Author event: hosted by Booksmith
Check out their calendar for future free author events (here)
Tune in Tuesdays 11am pst VIRTUAL: ZYZZYVA & The Booksmith Present: Lockdown Lit @ Lunch

The Illness Lesson
by Clare Beams
Historical | Goodreads

Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today
by Rachel Vorona Cote
Historical, Feminism | Goodreads
Virtual Author event: hosted by Books Inc.
Check out their calendar for future free author events (here)

We Are Not Free
by Traci Chee
Historical, YA, Japanese-American | Goodreads

Forest of Souls
(Shamanborn #1)
by Lori M. Lee
Fantasy, YA | Goodreads

This is My Brain in Love
by by I.W. Gregorio
YA, Chinese-American | Goodreads
Virtual Author event: hosted by Green Apple Books
Check out their calendar for future free author events (here)
A conversation between Stephanie Danler and Anna Wiener

Stray
by Stephanie Danler
Memoir | Goodreads

Uncanny Valley: A Memoir
by Anna Wiener
Memoir | Goodreads

Virtual Author event: hosted by Book Passages
Register and listen to the archive of this or to future Book Passages author talks for free (here)
A conversation between Lori Gottlieb and Dr. Rick Hanson

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone:
A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
by Lori Gottlieb
Memoir, Psychology | Goodreads

Neurodharma:
New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness
by Dr. Rick Hanson
Psychology | Goodreads

AUTHOR ALERT: fans...

John Grisham
Virtual Event at Book Passage (here)
Wednesday, May 27
12pm pst / 3pm est

AND watched: online for CAAMFest 2020

Tigertail (2020)
Director/Writer: Alan Yang
Stars: Tzi Ma, Christine Ko, Hong-Chi Lee
on Netflix
Drama, Taiwain | imdb | my rating: 5
In this multi-generational drama, a Taiwanese factory worker leaves his homeland to seek opportunity in America, where he struggles to find connection while balancing family and newfound responsibilities.

Fruit Fly (2009)
Director/Writer: H.P. Mendoza
Stars: L.A. Renigen, Mike Curtis, Theresa Navarro
Comedy, Musical, Filipino-American, San Francisco | imdb | my rating: 4
Filipina performance artist Bethesda moves into an art commune to search for her long missing biological mother. Along the way, she comes to realize that she just might be a fairy princess, fag hag, fruit fly.

Larry Itliong cookie
created by Cookie Activist, Jasmine Cho
see more cookie creations (here)
featured in CAAMfest 2020
Check out her book:

Role Models Who Look Like Me:
Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Who Made History
by Jasmine Cho
History, Children, Picture Book | Goodreads
~*~
* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

*** THANKS to those on the front line during these times ***
Shelter In Place - Day 69, Week 11
Something amusing: Wes Anderson–inspired guide to surviving the lockdown by Madelaine Turner

@in_too_deepmp3

i tried to see if I could make this only using things I could find in my apartment. hope you like ! 😂 ##fyp ##foryou ##wesanderson ##film

♬ original sound - in_too_deepmp3

Stay healthy! Be safe!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Stacking the Shelves - 6.11.16

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!

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BOUGHT:

Unrivaled
(Beautiful Idols #1)
by Alyson Noël
-Mystery, YA
Amazon | Goodreads
=====> I heard Alyson speak about this one at BEA and she mentioned that it was like a mashup of Judith Krantz/Danielle Steele/Jackie Collins glamour chick-lit AND mystery.

On Rue Tatin
The Simple Pleasures of Life in a Small French Town
by Susan Loomis
-France, Travel
Amazon | Goodreads
=====> July selection for SF Travel Book Club.

Sweetbitter
by Stephanie Danler
-Literary, Food, New York
Amazon | Goodreads

=====> Omnivore Books on Food, San Francisco, hosted a visit from author, Stephanie Danler featuring her latest novel. It is a food and wine and coming of age kind of story.


For REVIEW:

The Cilantro in Apple Pie
by Kimberley Knights
-New Adult
Amazon | Goodreads

UNBOXING: for review

JUNE box for the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge (details here).

JUNE Box includes:
-Saving Abby by Steena Holmes
-25 Sense by Lisa Henthorn
-Everybody Rises by Stephanie Clifford
-The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan
-Marshmallow Tongs
-Bubbles
-Colorful Chalk
-Table cover
-Straws


From BEA:

I went as a lone wolf to this fabulous book event. Prowled the floors and got daily feedings of delicious books currently published or soon to be. I also attended discussion panels showcasing authors with their thoughts and beautiful selves on display.

GOT some Mystery...


A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
-Mystery, British Detective, Canada | Amazon | Goodreads

Darktown by Thomas Mullen
-Mystery, Historical | Amazon | Goodreads

The Boy in The Shadows by Carl Johan Vallgren
-Mystery, Private Investigator, Sweden | Amazon | Goodreads

GOT some YA...


The Diabolique by S.J. Kincaid
-SciFi, YA | Amazon | Goodreads -giveaway offer ends June 22

The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker
-Paranormal, Witches, YA | Amazon | Goodreads

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
-Fantasy, YA | Amazon | Goodreads -giveaway offer ends June 23


AND watched: DVD

The Hunger Games: (2015)
Mockingjay - Part 2
Director: Francis Lawrence
Screenplay: Peter Craig and Danny Strong
Based on book by: Suzanne Collins
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
-Adventure, Sci-Fi | imdb | my rating: 4
As the war of Panem escalates to the destruction of other districts, Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant leader of the rebellion, must bring together an army against President Snow, while all she holds dear hangs in the balance.

=====> Finally watched the final film in the Hunger Games series. Although it wraps up things well enough, it was not as fun to watch as the first one.


Currently flipping through: from the library

Girl in Dior
by Annie Goetzinger
-Biography, Fashion, YA, Graphic Novel
Amazon | Goodreads
=====> Wanted to look at pretty dresses.

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

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

Waiting on Wednesday - 4.27.16

Waiting on Wednesday
sponsored by Jill at Breaking the Spine (details)
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I'm waiting for...

Sweetbitter
by Stephanie Danler
-Coming of Age
Release date: May 24, 2016
Amazon | Goodreads
You will develop a palate. A palate is a spot on your tongue where you remember. Where you assign words to the textures of taste. Eating becomes a discipline, language-obsessed. You will never simply eat food again.

These are the words that introduce us to Tess, the twenty-two-year-old narrator of Sweetbitter—and you will never again read a debut coming-of-age novel as stunning as this one.

Shot from a mundane, provincial past, Tess comes to New York in the stifling summer of 2006. Alone, knowing no one, living in a rented room in Williamsburg, she manages to land a job as a “backwaiter” at a celebrated downtown Manhattan restaurant. This begins the year we spend with Tess as she starts to navigate the chaotic, enchanting, punishing, and privileged life she has chosen, as well as the remorseless and luminous city around her. What follows is her education: in oysters, Champagne, the appellations of Burgundy, friendship, cocaine, lust, love, and dive bars. As her appetites awaken—for food and wine, but also for knowledge, experience, and belonging—we see her helplessly drawn into a darkly alluring love triangle. With an orphan’s ardor she latches onto Simone, a senior server at the restaurant who has lived in ways Tess only dreams of, and against the warnings of coworkers she falls under the spell of Jake, the elusive, tatted up, achingly beautiful bartender. These two and their enigmatic connection to each other will prove to be Tess’s most exhilarating and painful lesson of all.

Stephanie Danler intimately defines the crucial transition from girl to woman, from living in a place that feels like nowhere to living in a place that feels like the center of the universe. She deftly conjures the nonstop and purely adrenalized world of the restaurant—conversations interrupted, phrases overheard, relationships only partially revealed. And she evokes the infinite possibilities, the unbearable beauty, the fragility and brutality of being young in New York with heart-stopping accuracy. A lush novel of the senses—of taste and hunger, seeing and understanding, love and desire—Sweetbitter is ultimately about the power of what remains after disillusionment, and the transformation and wisdom that come from our experiences, sweet and bitter.

=====> I feel like doing some arm chair traveling to New York with this one.

FYI: Stephanie will be at Omnivore Books in San Francisco, 6:30pm, June 1, 2016.