Filipino Lit, represent!

It’s high time I give my roots some lovin’, so I figured spending some moolah on buying books by Filipino authors wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I’ve always wanted to support Filipino Literature in my own little way, and of course, as a reader, buying books is obviously the simplest way to do so. It also happened that I’ve got two book-loving friends who also rally for the same cause. Dotay kept on tagging and updating me on Facebook about recent releases from Ricky Lee and our beloved Bob Ong, while Marga’s review of Sotto’s Before Ever After just won me over completely. I’m sold, and I’m holding the two of them responsible. Well yesterday, I finally had the chance to stroll around bookstores in Trinoma and I went home grinning like a whacko with these three books. My lustful bookslut heart rejoices!

I’m a blessed BookWhore

How do you make me tremendously happy? Send me a boxful of books. Which is exactly what salbehe did to fulfil my Christmas Wishlist for 2011, organized by Prinsesa Musang. Opening that massive package made me understand how long-lost heiresses must’ve felt on primetime dramas whenever their identities get ultimately revealed. Oh, what fortune! I squealed and squealed and squealed some more. And aside from these sixteen promising books, Miss Salbe also sent me an orange lipstick from Etude House, a handy 2012 planner and a cutesy headband! Seriously, how awesome is she? Thank you Miss Salbe, I officially love you!

Ang mga kaibigan ni Mama Susan, Bob Ong
The Captain’s Daughters, Benita Brown
Dog Walker, Leslie Schnur
Turning Thirty, Mike Gayle
Marly’s Ghost, David Levithan
Here on Earth, Alice Hoffman
Truck: a love story, Michael Perry
The Cabal and other stories, Ellen Gilchrist
The Good Guy, Dean Koontz
The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
The Nanny Diaries, Emma Mclaughlin
Where the Heart is, Billie Letts
Big City Eyes, Delia Ephron
The Valkyries, Paulo Coelho
Heal my Heart, Doreen Laroya
Shut the door, Amanda Marquit

January: all booked out!

…And this is how you open the year with a bang, bibliophile-style. I went on another mad book-shopping spree for the holidays and to gear myself up for a more awesome 2012. Two of these books are written by some of my favourite authors of which I am dying to read more about, like Alice Hoffman and Emma Donoghue, while some are very intriguing finds. All in all, I’ve got nine promising books which will make the first month of my year spectacular.

Ah, nothing could possibly be wonderfully dorkier than this.

• Here on Earth, Alice Hoffman
• Your own, Sylvia, Stephanie Hemphill
• The Gardens of Kyoto, Kate Walbert
• Chain Mail, Hiroshi Ishizaki
• The Burn Journals, Brent Runyon
• Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
• Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue
• Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, Joanne Proulx
• Open House, Patricia Williams

 

I read, I wept, I loved.

I’m very iffy about Romances and I swear it has nothing to do with my apparent lack of experience in the love department. Sure, I sit down for the occasional chick-lit from time to time, but I usually avoid hardcore love stories because most of the time they end up pretty much generic; it’s either too draggy and full of fluff that I get bored waiting for my tears to come out or it’s too plain melodramatic that I get bored to tears. I blame it on my having read Nicholas Sparks at age 9.

I am therefore wonderfully caught off-guard by Christopher Castellani’s A Kiss from Maddalena, because it shattered all my juvenile traumas about romances. For once, no one’s dying from cancer, suffering from alzheimers, divorcing or killing each other, finding their lost parents, or are secretly vampires. It’s ironic because the plot and backdrop of the novel is in fact on a grander scale and yet the intimacy and the genuineness of the characters’ lives still resonate from cover to cover. We get a vivid first-hand account of the second world war and its aftermath in Italy—we don’t just meet a pair of lovers or a family; we meet an entire town and the many ties and traditions that binds them together. Most importantly, the book is still very much anchored around the bittersweet affair between Vito and Maddalena—probably the most passionate and saddest tale I’ve read for this year.

I’m not even embarrassed to admit that I still repeatedly read the last paragraphs like these are from a page torn off a haunted love letter my soul has been wanting to write for so long. This book gives heartache a voice. Thank you Mr. Castellani, my faith in Romances has been completely restored.

The Mayhem and Magic of Weddings

Zaquita-Obra Nuptials (December 10, 2011)

I’ve been ranting repeatedly on twitter a few weeks back about suddenly getting an influx of wedding invitations, like there’s a national conspiracy being brewed against me. Well, if you ask a girl who just had a boy haircut and has been perpetually single all her life to be a bridesmaid thrice, chances are she’ll get pretty cranky, you know.

But anyway, I’m glad I made it through all of three weddings in one piece. The last wedding was actually one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in my life. So grand yet so intimate. I actually had to choke back a few tears during the moment that the groom was giving his personal speech of vows to his bride. “Salamat, kasi pinili mo akong maging first and last boyfriend mo. Kahit wala kang sense of direction, binigyan mo ng direksyon ang buhay ko,” he says in between tears. And yeah sure, cheesy stuff is cheesy, but it just totally killed me. Sapul sa puso eh. Will I ever hear those words from a guy?

It also had me thinking about my future other half, should there ever be a chance for us to meet. On the drive home that night after the wedding, I was so lost with this thoughts but ended up thinking about songs instead, about what defines me at the moment and what I want to be played in my wedding, in case I’ll be married someday. Yes, definitely just for emergency purposes.

So here’s my wedding inspired mix tape, ya’ll. What’s yours? 

Ambition: Androgyny

Yes, I know it’s creepy, beyond delusional, extremely preposterous and what-on-earth-was-I-thinking insane. But indulge me, ok? Haha. 

So last October 26, a few days after I resigned from work, I decided on cutting my hair too. I think I mentioned in my previous posts that the last time I had an extreme haircut was back in January of 2008, making it more than three years ago since I did something equally drastic.

Anyway, this previous stunt I pulled wasn’t something I did out of a whim or anything. (My mom is a little scared about it at first, and I’m not quite sure how dad will react once he arrives this December.) It’s actually been part of my odd list of dreams for quite some time already. As expected though, my friends became hysterical when I posted a photo on facebook. And let me quote myself here: Yes, one of my quirky ambitions is to become gwapo. (Surprisingly, I looked decent as a guy, I guess, since I’ve gotten a couple of compliments saying so.) It’s overwhelming and flattering to be androgynous, I must say.

It has its perks and downsides though. Of course, getting rid of the hassle brought by long hair is already a given, but having a hair this short has really been a liberating experience. I don’t mind the weather as much anymore, so it’s no big deal if it’s extremely hot outside. I also don’t have to scavenge the house for my missing ponytails since it’s no longer necessary. Plus, I can dress shabbily to my heart’s content. Lol. (Having long curly hair like before somehow imposes a girly, straight-laced demeanour that I always have to be properly dressed everywhere.) However, disadvantages are inevitable, of course. To my horror, I’ve been invited to three weddings recently, and you can probably picture me struggling over having boy-hair and being a bridesmaid. Yeah, it’s so hard and embarrassingly awkward that I won’t go to further details. What’s even worse, there has been a couple of incidents where friends of my closest girl friends mistake me for being their boyfriend, whenever I post on their facebook walls! My ambiguous name doesn’t help, either. Hahaha.

And well, sometimes, I just go melodramatic whenever I see girls that have the same hairstyle I had back then. It’s nostalgia kicking in, I guess. Or maybe I just frequently miss my hair a lot. Everything’s good though. I really enjoy how I look right now, and I’d like to view it as a symbolic turning over of a new leaf in my life chapter. It’ll probably be a long time before it grows back, but for now I’ll just have fun being androgynous, because, you know, I just love adventure that much.

Dear Santa I’ve been good wishlist

So on the very day of the deadline, I stumbled upon Prinsesa Musang’s Virtual Exchange Gift idea and I thought it was awesome and how come I’ve only heard about this now and blah blah blah. Anyway, I wanted to give it a try since it’s my first Christmas as a blogger so I want to make it a wee bit more meaningful than the others. So here’s my wishlist. And yes, dear Santa, I’ve been really really good this year.

• Something small: A Bob Ong paperback, preferably ‘Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan‘ (Dahil alam kong late na ako sa uso, but it’s never too late for a BO Book.)
• Something big: A Hunger Games Trilogy Set (Dahil late talaga ako sa uso. At ayokong panoorin ang movie hangga’t di ko to nababasa. Sabi nga, Don’t judge a book by its movie.)
• Something cute: A headband with fancy prints or ribbons! (Dahil after three years, ngayon lang ulit ako nagpagupit ng extreme at dumadalas akong masabihan ng gwapo at kailangan ko na ulit magmukhang babae.)
• Something soft: A big bag of Marshmallows. (Dahil sa pasko, bawal ang diet.)
• Something techie: DSLR. lol. (Dahil ambisyosa ako.)
• Something fancy: Pretty boxes from Papemelroti for book storage space. (Dahil kawawa naman ang mga patong-patong kong libro.)
• Something (Orange): Orange Lipstick from Etude House! (See: Something cute.)
• Something wearable: Black pair of underwear. (Dahil isa sa mga kaweirduhan ko ang hindi pagsusuot ng underwear na hindi itim, okay?)
• Something you need: Money. Lots of it. Or Boyfriend. Lots of it too. Lol. (Dahil mukha akong pera at wala akong trabaho ngayon.)
• Something you can use for work: A purple Wallet (Dahil kailangan ko ng lalagyan ng matatanggap kong pera, di ba?)
• Something sweet: A used, worn-out paperback of your favorite novel. (Dahil die-hard akong naniniwala na libro pa rin ang pinaka romantic na regalo. At oo hindi ko naisip yung sweet as in sweet foods.)
• Dear Santa I’ve Been Good and I really, really, really want: BOOK MONEY OR BOOK GIFT CERTIFICATES. (Dahil mukha nga talaga akong pera at hindi mo maiintindihan kung gaano ako ka-obsessed sa libro.)

To whomever shall I be partnered with…ayan…MAPRESSURE KA! Lol. Chos lang  itong list na ito. Pero sabi nga ng salawikain, ‘All Chos are half-meant.’ Haha. Pero seryoso, kahit isa lang dyan would already make my Christmas. Thank you in advance! Happy Holidays!

The Joys of Re-Reading

So okay: It really does look like I have abandoned my  blog, what with the two-month long hiatus I intentionally gave myself as a gift. And I know that whatever excuse I’m gonna give will sound lame anyway but here’s a brief rundown of my life so far: I recently just resigned from my job and cut all of my used-to-be-waist-length hair. So not only am I blissfully unemployed, I also look very much like a boy now. (More on this on a later post.) Yeah, even my own mom is worried about me, and whether I’m in some sort of post-adolescence crisis or something. But no worries: I’m good. I will be fine. In fact, I spent these lovely weeks hibernating with my beloved books. And since I temporarily have no stable source of moolah lately, I realized it’ll be fun to re-read some of the really old books I have on my shelf, some of which are books I’ve had since high school. Some pages are already wrinkled and dog-eared, but they still feel like new books to me after such a long time. Okay, so much for my book-romantic self. Here’s my October-November Reading List.

• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Maggie O’ Farrell)
• Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (Dyan Sheldon)
• A Million Little Pieces (James Fray)
• Just in Case (Meg Rosoff)
• The Honk and Holler Opening Soon (Billie Letts)
• Scribbler of Dreams (Mary E. Pearson)
• Funny Little Monkey (Andrew Auseon)
• The Liar (Stephen Fry)
• Exchange (Paul Magrs)
• The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)

That OMG-I-love-this Book

Disclaimer: this review is going to be embarrassing.

Oh book, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I madly adored Jennifer Donnelly’s ‘A Northern Light’, that even weeks after having finished it, I still fondly remember how awesome, how beautiful this book was written and how lovestruck it made me as a reader. It tells the tale of sixteen-year old Mattie Gokey, in the year 1900s, which quite frankly overwhelmed me prior to reading it because I frequently struggle with historical-flavored fiction. And yet it got me head over heels on the first chapter alone, leaving me incoherent, wordless and asfdahgfoasfd.

How lovely, how real, how rich. Yes I know how fangirly that sounds, but still. To be completely honest, even my whole family was baffled. For the entire two and a half days that I’ve been reading it, I was bragging about how good the plot’s getting at every chance I get, despite their ‘I-don’t-even-give-a-damn’ glares. It’s actually hard to talk about the greatness of the book because I’m scared I won’t give it justice. So as you might have already noticed, I’m trying to give you a picture of me whilst reading it instead.

It’s the kind of fiction that blows your mind, gets under your skin and never leaves. It’s the first book that I have literally embraced, holding it close to my chest while I’m drowning in blankets and muttering “Book, I love you, I love you,” in the darkness of 2am. I’m not even kidding.

Fictional Farewells

Yes it’s pretty much a joke, but that’s my official birthday cake for this year, courtesy of my uber-honest girlfriends who dropped by at my place minutes before midnight to celebrate the countdown to my turning twenty-one last September tenth. Oh, how I love them to pieces.

Still, getting another year older makes me cringe a bit despite all the goofball-cheer effort I’m exerting to welcome it with arms-wide open. There’s just something so plain scary with growing up that feels maddening sometimes; like I’m being pulled away towards another far-away; like I’ve got a time-bomb waiting for me to say goodbye to being a kid. And this makes me secretly sad. Ah, look at me getting all philosophical and pensive again!

And when was the last time I made my last mixtape, by the way? Goodness, I feel so ancient. Here’s the set of songs I’ve been abusing on my playlist for the last couple of weeks. On a totally irrelevant sidenote, though: Forgive me, my dear blog, for having abandoned you too long. I swear I’ll make it up to you. I swear.