Bothell Books, Movies & other stuff

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
this one has a long wait at the library so, get your hold in ASAP!

Happy Reading!

GoodReads summary below:

Ocean Vuong returns with an achingly beautiful novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

# Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

There are 2 new movies based on this classic. Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro) is on Netflix and The Bride (Maggie Gylenhall), should be released sometime in 2026. I am very excited to see them both, but I want to read the book first! so, let's do it!
the online critiques of del Toro's version are quite intriguing. interesting departures from the source material will be fun to discuss.
The Bride has some big names attached to it. Gyllenhall's version will also have some interesting departures from the original that i look forward to discussing.
Frankenstein is a classic that has so many different releases in both print and audio. maybe you will get the original 1818 version or maybe you'll get another. how many different narrators and forwards will we have come January? the intrigue continues.

Happy Reading!

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Readers' Favorite Fantasy (2022)

recommended by a member and won the vote for our February book. will we agree that this is the perfect book for February? i think so. it looks cute and fun.

Happy Reading!
GoodReads summary below.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.
If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.
But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
chosen by members from a list of books set to be adapted, as our March book.
this book was published in june of 2025 and has already been optioned for a movie. a movie with Julia Roberts! intriguing! i wonder if we will think that it reads more like a screenplay. we shall see!

FYI, there is another movie, starring Daniel Radcliff, with the same name. from what i've read, it is a completely different story.

Happy Reading!

GoodReads summary:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders comes an inventive, utterly propulsive murder-mystery in reverse, tracing a marriage back in time to uncover the dark secret at its heart.
Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.
What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.
Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.