Letters From Home

Letters From Home by Kristina McMorris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I can be such a book snob sometimes.

I don't know what's gotten into me, but before I picked up Letters From Home, there were thoughts forming in my head, which eventually stuck with me through the first pages of the book. Maybe it was instinct or just one of my mood swings.

But seriously though, I can't remember what happened in the first chapters. Unless I give my memory some time to settle down.

I remembered plowing through the words, fighting an upstream battle.
I also remembered sucking in deep breaths, closing my eyes and smiling, and crying my heart out, in all the right moments.

Liz's character was a bit pale for me, despite of how the novel kinda revolved around her. I expected more from her and, okay, the other characters too. What stood out in the novel was the war and how it changes lives, changes us in ways we don't even know we can, and how powerful a few words can affect us. It reminded me of I Had Seen Castles, but somewhat more hopeful than that.

Letters in those days was there life line, the parcel of hope they cling to when the world is falling away, when life is draining at their feet. It guided them back home.

Although I was not impressed with the letters Liz wrote - pales in comparison to the letters from Jojo Moyes' The Last Letter From Your Lover, or maybe the writers poured out their throes of passion in them, different from Liz & Morgan's letter.

Still, it was heartbreaking but beautifully crafted to reach just the right ending, for Liz, for Betty, for Julia, for Morgan and for Charlie.




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Book event: MIBF 2012

As promised, I brought my little brother to the Manila International Book Fair at the Mall of Asia SMX Convention Center last Saturday. We're the two bookworms in the family, thought it was only fitting that we go. It's our first time so imagine our faces when we entered this huge hall full of books! The weekend crowd had not come in yet but there were already lot of people by 11. Bought the books we mostly wanted before going out to grab some lunch. Went around the department store cause they're having a sale. When we came back at the book fair at 4pm, the place was packed!

A bit disappointed that I didn't get all the books on my list. The Unbearable Lightness of Being and the book my brother was looking for was out of stock at the Fully Booked booth. I had to get The Night Circus at the mall branch. But thank the book gods for the 20% discount!

Our MIBF loot!

Just wanna hibernate with these.

What my 9-year old brother likes to read.

I was mostly overwhelmed by all the books and the people that I didn't got in my zone. My brother is elated and he's almost finished reading all his books. Didn't get to take photos of the event cause I have a sucky phone camera. Today's the last day of the book fair. Heard there were more freebies! Can't wait for next year!

Gatsby's Girl

Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I don't know how to review a book. Let's get that out of the way.

I simply put into words what I felt, thought and tasted. Though sometimes I could be harsh when I'm being a book snob, which unfortunately I am.

Gatsby's Girl is a sad, nostalgic love story. It's heartbreaking yet illuminated. The way the characters come alive, the way Ginevra gets under your skin, Scott - blonde, melodramatic, eccentric - everywhere in the background, and Julian. Oh Julian. Julian was gone too soon, but I can still taste his sweetness in my mouth.

The way Ginevra and Scott's lives take their own course away from each other but not quite. There was always a fleeting thought between them. And the dim glow of an era I've always wanted to live in.

Truly a tour de force. When I read the historical notes at the end, I was confused that this book was not what really happened to Ginevra and Scott. This book swept me in.

"Love stories make me cry, even when they turn out happily. Because the best part has come to and." Maybe I cried because I was afraid that this might be the best part of my romance with Scott - an illicit pair hiding in a dark theater, our upturned faces bathed in stage light.

He reached over and tenderly wiped each eye with his thumb. "What nonsense. Why can't we live the best parts over and over again?"




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1 more week til Manila International Book Fair! 1 more week til I get my hands on a new book/s! 1 week is too long :(

Book find: Gatsby's Girl

Whenever I'm at Booksale, I get lost in my own little world.

The place is like a treasure trove full of books. The thrill of not knowing what you'll find, the calming effect of aimlessly reading titles after titles, the feel of books, the simple pleasure of unearthing a book you never thought you'd wanted or find. I could go on and on for days just tasting unfamiliar titles on my lips. I'd read every last one, row after row, and tuck them back in place. I blame a minor OCD to leave no book unturned though it's also sort of a craving you just have to satisfy.

I picked up four good books (based on my hunch, and okay, the synopsis) before deciding to get Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston.

Though I don't get lucky every time I visit. But it's been a long time so I think the book gods put the odds in my favor.

Sad the long weekend's over.. but we'll be having another holiday next week. And it's my birthday!!!

M-day Wish List

I'm fond of making wish lists that I don't, in some weird way, stick to. I always end up getting things not on my list - afters hours of wandering in bookstores, some books just show themselves to me at the last minute - that I never tick off anything. These few books (from a three page-list) are way up on my list! Thinking which one I should get for myself (IF I have moolah).

The Time in Between by Maria Duenas
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston
The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene
The Elements of Style by William Strunk & E.B. White
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

It's a long weekend at MNL. Catching up on my reading. Will visit Booksale soon!

Excuse my 'Rules of Civility' withdrawals

Grand Central Station circa 1935-1941/Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives

“In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.”

“It is a lovely oddity of human nature that a person is more inclined to interrupt two people in conversation than one person alone with a book.”

“If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us...then there wouldn't be so much fuss about love in the first place.”

“Anyone who has ridden the subway twice a day to earn their bread knows how it goes: When you board, you exhibit the same persona you use with your colleagues and acquaintances. You've carried it through the turnstile and past the sliding doors, so that your fellow passengers can tell who you are - cocky or cautious, amorous or indifferent, loaded or on the dole. But you find yourself a seat and the train gets under way; it comes to one station and then another; people get off and others get on. And under the influence of the cradlelike rocking of the train, your carefully crafted persona begins to slip away. The super-ego dissolves as your mind begins to wander aimlessly over your cares and your dreams; or better yet, it drifts into ambient hypnosis, where even cares and dreams recede and the peaceful silence of the cosmos pervades.”

“I've come to realize that however blue my circumstances, if after finishing a chapter of a Dickens novel I feel a miss-my-stop-on-the-train sort of compulsion to read on, then everything is probably going to be just fine.”

“Whatever setbacks he had faced in his life, he said, however daunting or dispiriting the unfolding of events, he always knew that he would make it through, as long as when he woke in the morning he was looking forward to his first cup of coffee."

“That's the problem with living in New York. You've got no New York to run away to.”

Inspiring. Gad, I adore Amor Towles.

A reminder

For several weeks I felt like a speeding train with no brakes - a machine, nothing more. Something stopped me in my tracks just when I thought I was going straight for the cliffs. And I breathed, I was human after all with dreams as scary as this. Thank you Anon, for pulling me back a step just so I could see how far I've come - not that far yet. It was the best prologue for my birthday month!

"Sometimes, you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be."


Why hello, August!

And then I saw this..

Lucas Scott's reading list, I literally squealed!

The Winter Of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

PS. I first knew about Great Gatsby from him years ago!

Find out other fictional characters' reading list on Flavorwire.

Wishful thinking

There are rare works of fiction that seep into our lives - books, movies, TV series - that when we reach the epilogue or the finale, we're hit by a kind of longing for the future, for the parts that the curtains closed on or the author left out. And we'd indulge ourselves that on the other side of the world, the characters we're rooting for is walking the earth just as we are. The thought is comforting if not wishful.

If you could take something/someone out of a book, movie, or a series, what/who would it be?

It'd be Lucas Scott's book An Unkindness of Ravens, from One Tree Hill. I've always been a fan of the series. I skipped a few seasons but I watch it whenever I have the chance. The characters felt so real, the things they go through felt human. Lucas wrote that in Ravens - the girls he loved, dealing with his stepbrother Nathan, friendships, vulnerability, adventures, family. Lucas wrote the novel when he was in high school, he didn't take out the real names, "written as they happened and written exactly how he felt at the time". He became a known author after the novel was published. To read the series in print from Lucas' point of view will be a guilty pleasure!

An "excerpt" from the novel:

"Suddenly, it was as if the roar of the crowd, the echo of the final buzzer, the cheers of my teammates were all sounding from a thousand miles away. And what remained in that bizarre, muffled silence was only Peyton, the girl whose art and passion and beauty had changed my life. At that moment, my triumph was not a state championship, but simple clarity. The realization that we had always been meant for each other and every instinct to the contrary had simply been a denial of the following truth. I was now, and would always be, in love with Peyton Sawyer."

Got the idea from an article I read over at Flavorwire: 10 Fake Books in Movies That We Wish We Could Read. 

Ramblings

My mind is a clutter right now - overlapping thoughts and daydreams and words - stumbling to get out. Every time I stop to sort things out with myself, I hit a writer's block. I feel detached, floating aimlessly in a sea of words. I feel restless and anxious, wanting to say everything but not knowing how to say it. Words are not enough but they're everything.

Spending too much time in one's head is dangerous. But when you bow your head in front of a paperback, you escape, you stop the tide from pulling you into monotony and routine. Books are like anchors, they hold you down, and lift you above the choking water when you need to breathe. 

I felt how strong the tide was and I refuse to go with the flow.

Listening to: 1901 - Birdy & Little bit - Drake ft. Lykke Li

Books and lusts

Currently reading: Rereading, actually. I have the Penguin classic edition, but don't you love this cover? Have you seen the movie?

Thinking about reading: Was supposed to get this book but I ended up with 501 must-read books!

New on bookshelf: Both were on sale when I bought them! 500 bucks for 2 hard bounds. Great finds! 

Perfect for my bedside table :)

Lusting over:

Mine for the reading!

I came across this beautiful quote from Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Will definitely put this on my reading list!

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived."

My love affair with Amor Towles

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I still can't put this down. It feels like a love affair - sneaking glances, hurried words, stealing away to unlit rooms, just to taste Towles' prose on my lips.

I love Katey. I want my own Wallace Wolcott and Dicky Vanderwhile, and cried when they left. I hated Eve. I wanna punch Tinker on the face and wrap my arms around Hank, or maybe the opposite. I adore Anne Grandyn, her grandeur, her poise, her strength. I miss New York, and fell in love over and over again for the blinding lights, the nostalgic feeling for the future, every feeling, every word that is New York. Katey Kontent is my heroine. I'm Amor Towles' lover. This book will take you in.



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Current read: Rules of Civility

The crisp sound of plastic ripping under my fingers, the smell of paper, the smooth plane of the cover slightly disturbed by embossed letters, the crowded parking lot, lines of impatient work people, a woman clicks her tongue loudly, a man wipes his sweating nape, a girl staring me down over his boyfriend's shoulder. I looked up once, she looked away. I smirked and read and read and read, my body humming with lust over pages of prose. The van abruptly arrived, the line pushed me forward, I trip over words. Inside the capsule-like vehicle, bodies cramped against each other, shoulder-to-shoulder, elbow-to-rib, knees against the back of the seats, I pray for a short ride home. 

"On Friday nights, we let boys whom we had no intention of kissing buy us drinks, and in exchange for dinner we kissed a few whom we had no intention of kissing twice."

"Books are hardbound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am a happy victim of books." - Karl Lagerfeld

We all have different beliefs of what our own heaven would look like when we die. If afterlife was eternal we'd want to spend it with the things we'd never get tired of, our guilty pleasures. 

Photo by Todd Selby/The Selby Is In Your Place

Karl Lagerfeld's library, I died! Not only is he the genius behind Chanel, he's also BFFs with my girl crush, Blake Lively! And he has this glorious stack of books in his Paris studio! Lucky guy. 

Photo by Toddy Selby/The Selby Is In Your Place

I feel like staring at the photo for the rest of the day. If I was there, I'd just stand in the middle of the room, my eyes glazed over in awe and vomit rainbows. I mean, who won't!

48 Laws of Power

 Got my package from Bookay-Ukay yesterday!!! 

Not even close to a self-help book. I wouldn't even call it that. I wanna devour this in one greedy gulp! The Art of Seduction soon!

Posting from work. Done early! Articles up at Asia Daily Wire.

The Spies of Warsaw

"Sip the wine, taste the food, find everyone fascinating - a good motto for diplomacy."

"I guess that's one way to save the world."

Alan Furst's novel is a glimpse on the dreary and sophisticated diplomatic life. Espionage isn't always thrilling. Spies in World War II dealt with obtaining intelligence rather than battling goons or thugs Salt-esque (Angelina Jolie), but equally dangerous. But diplomats live a double life. While they're not prying on their enemies' secrets, they show up at parties just to conspire against each other. Scandalous in their uniforms, waistcoats, and beautiful women in their arms. 

Fashion and Guantanamo

I came across this article during work (I got the job! W/c explains why I'm MIA lately. Squeezing a post in before I go home). Alex Gilvarry writes about Filipinos in his debut novel with two completely different subjects - fashion and Guantanamo, the most notorious prison. I'm really curious how that'll turn out.

Book intuition

I miss walking on aisles lined with bookshelves, spending hours - but it never feels that way - reading title after title, going nowhere exactly but every step has a purpose that leads me to that one book. Then I just know. Magical.

I dream of entering a bookstore, covered with spines from ceiling to floor, light seeping through cracks on the spaces between books. It's the only maze I'd never wanna get out of.

The feeling of letting time slip away, no worries, because time seem to slow when I'm surrounded with books.

A year of books

2011 has been filled with books from young adult, to classics, to historical fiction. This year is also the first time I've captured every book experience in this blog. I'm thankful that I get to share it with everyone else. Whenever I find a good read, I always make my friends read it. I'm excited for another year (fingers crossed) full of books! :-)

I don't own Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler but I love the heart made of sea glass. The Last Letter from your Lover by Jojo Moyes is an eye-catcher. I love the vintage feel of The Diplomat's Wife by Pam Jenoff.

I have these books in different editions. I would love to have these beautiful covers too!

Either because I love how scenes were written or it's simply full of beautiful quotes, I highlighted as much lines as I want!

I got The Diplomat's Wife from Booksale for only 75 bucks! It was an unexpected find and cheap, most of all, a good read! The Great Gastby was only 150 bucks from Fullybooked. Best timing since I was broke that time. Haha!

Jojo Moyes and Pam Jenoff are great writers. They paint with words and makes you feel you're part of the story. Delectable reads! I just hope the movie will be faithful to the novel.

At First Sight made my throat close up, my chest heavy, and my eyes sting. The Sky is Everywhere evoked longing, loneliness, love and mellow vibes. The Last Letter from your Lover simply made me feel alive and in love.

I love the authors' writing style, the prose and the plot.

My top 3 reads of 2011. I want to read them over and over again, to pore over the beautiful words and to meet the characters that are full of life.

2011 has been a great year, book-wise. Excited for the books I'll be reading in 2012. :-)

"So many books, so little time"