Explore: London

Explore The World 2022
through books, films, etc.
November: London
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READ:

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
by Jenny Bayliss
Contemporary, Romance, Holiday, Christmas | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Elinor Noel—Nory for short—is quite content running her secondhand bookshop in London. Forever torn between her working-class upbringing and her classmates’ extravagant lifestyles at the posh private school she attended on scholarship, Nory has finally figured out how to keep both at equal distance. So when two of her oldest friends invite their whole gang to spend the time leading up to their wedding together at the castle near their old school, Nory must prepare herself for an emotionally complicated few days.

The reunion brings back fond memories, but also requires Nory to dodge an ill-advised former fling. When she falls quite literally into the arms of Isaac, the castle’s head gardener, who has nothing but contempt for the “snobby prep school kids,” the attraction between them is undeniable. And as Nory spends more time with Isaac during the wedding festivities, she finds herself falling hard for the boy she used to consider an enemy. Nory and Isaac explore their common ground, but pressures mount on all sides, and Nory must decide what kind of life she wants to live and what sort of love is worth the risk...


VISIT: someday...

Word on the Water
The London Bookbarge
instagram| website
An independent bookshop on a 1920s Dutch barge situated in Granary Square, King's Cross.

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* part of Explore the World (here)

Lovely Books and Things - 11.20.22

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. Knitting my first pair of socks - autumn colors
2. Sting: A Winter's Night... Live from Durham Cathedral (here)
3. Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk at the Asian Art Museum (here)

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Bought:

The Christmas Murder Game
by Alexandra Benedict
Mystery, Christmas | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Library: audiobook

The Cloisters
by Katy Hays
Mystery, Gothic | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Library:

Lonely Castle in the Mirror
by Mizuki Tsujimura
translated by Philip Gabriel
Fantasy, YA, Japan | Published: 2021 (first 2017) | Goodreads

For review:

Going Rogue
by Janet Evanovich
Mystery, Humor | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
courtesy of publisher - Thanks!

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Virtual Author event: hosted by bookreporter
See archive of this (here)

The Last Party
by Clare Mackintosh
Mystery, Thriller | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
Virtual Author event: Happy Hannukah Romance
See archive of this (here)

Recommended for You
by Laura Silverman
YA, Romance | Published: 2020 | Goodreads

Mr. Perfect on Paper
by Jean Meltzer
Contemporary, Romance | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Love and Latkes
by Stacey Agdern
Romance, Holiday | Published: 2021 | Goodreads

Season of Love
by Helena Greer
Romance, LGBTQ, Holiday | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

~*~ AND watched: streaming

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)
Director: Claire Scanlon
Screenplay: Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, Wendy Molyneux
Based on book: Grant Ginder
Stars: Allison Janney, Ben Platt, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Kristen Bell
Comedy | imdb | my rating: 4

Family tensions ramp up among siblings in the week leading up to their half-sister's wedding in the country.

AND watched: theatre

All That Breathes (2022)
Director: Shaunak Sen
Stars: Salik RehmanMohammad SaudNadeem Shehzad
Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5

Amidst the darkening backdrop of Delhi's apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the Black Kite.

The Menu (2022)
Director: Mark Mylod
Writers: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult
Comedy, Horror, Thriller | imdb | my rating: 4

A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Triangle of Sadness (2022)
Director/Writer: Ruben Östlund
Stars: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Woody Harrelson
Comedy, Drama | imdb | my rating: 5

A fashion model celebrity couple join an eventful cruise for the super-rich.


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

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Rabbit rabbit: Rabbit Hutch

The Rabbit Hutch
by Tess Gunty
Literary, Coming of Age | Published: 2022 | Goodreads
The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving the residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, a number of people now reside quietly, looking for ways to live in a dying city. Apartment C2 is lonely and detached. C6 is aging and stuck. C8 harbors an extraordinary fear. But C4 is of particular interest.

Here live four teenagers who have recently aged out of the state foster-care system: three boys and one girl, Blandine, who The Rabbit Hutch centers around. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine is plagued by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her. Now all Blandine wants is an escape, a true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads.

Books and Bag: Yellow

Books and Bag
doing some dreaming
a designer bag and books to fill it
~*~

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Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
by R.F. Kuang
Historical, Fantasay | Published: 2022 | Goodreads

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center of translation and, more importantly, of silver-working: the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation through enchanted silver bars, to magical effect. Silver-working has made the British Empire unparalleled in power, and Babel's research in foreign languages serves the Empire's quest to colonize everything it encounters.

Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, is a fairytale for Robin; a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge serves power, and for Robin, a Chinese boy raised in Britain, serving Babel inevitably means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to sabotaging the silver-working that supports imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide: Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? What is he willing to sacrifice to bring Babel down?

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* image source: bag -from Loewe Chinese Monochrome Collection

Explore: Kenya

Explore The World 2022
through books, films, etc.
October: Kenya

AUDIOBOOK:

Circling the Sun
by Paula McLain
Historical, Africa, Kenya | Published: 2015 | Goodreads
Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl Markham is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships. Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

READ:

Mark of the Lion
by Suzanne Arruda
Mystery, Historical, Africa, Kenya | Published: 2006 | Goodreads
After driving an ambulance along the front lines of World War I, she can fire a rifle with deadly precision. Still suffering trauma from the Great War, she sets off for Africa determined to fulfill a man's dying wish...never expecting to become involved in murder.Rich with romance, mystery, and adventure, Mark of the Lion introduces a fascinating new heroine and explores the elusive heart of a compelling and exotic world.

WATCH:

Honey at the Top (2015)
Directors: Dean Puckett, Rebecca Wolff
Documentary, Africa, Kenya | imdb
Honey at the Top is a film about the Sengwer forest people of the Cherangani Hills, Kenya, being evicted from their ancestral land in the name of conservation.
EAT:

Teranga Foods
332 Golden Gate Ave
San Francisco, CA, 94102
(details)
TERANGA is on a mission to create refreshing and healthy prepared foods, snacks, frozen treats and drinks handcrafted in small batches using baobab and other unique ingredients from around the world.

VISIT: someday...

Prestige Bookshop
Prudential Building, Ground Floor
Mama Ngina St, Next to Imax.
Nairobi City, Kenya
(details)

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* part of Explore the World (here)