Sisterhood Everlasting

I admit it: I read this book for one reason - to find out what happened to Lena and Kostos. Sisterhood Everlasting doesn't disappoint, but it didn't fulfill all of my expectations either. If you've read the four previous books, you'll have a good time going back to the world of the Septembers. If you haven't, you might want to give this one a pass.

Faithful Place

I got to read this book because of a book swap. Hurrah for discovering new authors! I'm always intrigued by women who write in a genre dominated by men, like Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Tana French does not disappoint, She successfully captures the voice and point of view of hard-boiled Undercover detective Frank Mackey and shows us gritty (fictional) Faithful Place in all its glory.

As it was a mystery, I managed to keep myself from reading the ending immediately -- and I'm glad that I did.

I am definitely going to track down her other books and read them.

Fire and Hemlock

I found this book one night and couldn't go to sleep until I had finished it. Diana Wynne Jones takes the story of Tam Lin, adds another folktale (the story of Thomas the Rhymer, or so I'm told), and makes it her own.

The writing is assured and the pace is fast. Things get a bit muddled towards the end, but I would still recommend reading this book.

Gilead

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will,--

-Hamlet

Gilead is one of the most spiritual books I've read in a long time. It's filled with the musings of Congregationalist minister John Ames, who is near the end of his life. There is not a lot of dialogue. There is a lot of musing, on the personal, the philosophical, and of course, the spiritual.

Robinson writes lovely descriptive scenes. Her simple style makes for an engaging read as Ames ponders the redemption of his friend's wayward son.

Kalahati at Umpisa

Masasabing maestra si Anoñuevo sa paglalaro ng salita. Sakop ng kanyang mga tula ang samu'tsaring emosyon - kaligayahan, kalungkutan, nostalgia, at higit sa lahat, pag-ibig.

Nahahati ang Kalahati at Umpisa sa dalawang bahagi -- ang una, tungkol sa mga karaniwang bagay, pagbabalik tanaw sa nakaraan, at mga obserbasyon sa kanyang buhay,

Sa pangalawang bahagi, umiibig na si Anoñuevo. Kaya naman punung-puno ang bahagi ito ng mga tula tungkol sa paghanga at sa muling pagtagpo ng pag-ibig sa gitna ng middle age.

Anupaman ang paksa ng kanyang isinusulat, naipapakita ni Anoñuevo ang kanyang husay at galing sa lenggwahe sa bawat tula.

Cathedral

Carver's prose is simple, but his stories are anything but. Some plumb the depths of cynicism while others explore the possibility of hope. He is a master at meshing the two themes together.

Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions

What Miclat is writing about is more interesting than how he writes it. Miclat offers an in-depth look at the life of a Communist cadre in China during Martial Law.

The Age of Wonder

Holmes highlights the intersections of science and art during the eighteenth century and imparts to his reader the sense of wonder with which he wrote the book.

For me, this quote sums it up:

"Science, like poetry, was not merely 'progressive'. It directed a particular kind of moral energy and imaginative longing into the future. It enshrined the implicit belief that mankind could achieve a better, happier, world. This is what Davy believed too, and 'Hope' became one of his watchwords."

Pegasus & Chalice

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword is my all-time favorite book. It's got everything -- fantasy, a strong heroine, romance, and even a wry diplomacy.

I haven't been able to read her entire book list, but I was able to read her recent books Pegasus and Chalice. Reading them is like catching up with old friends.

I found Pegasus to be utterly absorbing - so much that I simply couldn't put it down until I had finished it. Pegasus is a story of humans and pegasi who coexist yet cannot communicate directly with each other. The bonding of twelve-year-old Princess Sylviianel and the fourteen-year-old pegasus Ebon changes all this. Aside from The Blue Sword, Pegasus is the McKinley book that I've found the most compelling since The Hero and The Crown and Deerskin.

Chalice is a shorter and to my mind, less interesting read. It's still worth reading however, to see how Chalice, the new Master and the Grand Seneschal hold Willowlands together.

Pegasus II comes out in 2012. I can hardly wait to read it.

No Longer an Anachronism

Back in highschool, I wrote off Nick Joaquin as an anachronism -- someone whose stores belonged to another place and time. I read him because I had to, because he was part of my highschool reading list. But I didn't like him.

I first started to re-appraise Nick Joaquin in college, when some his reportage was handed out during a literary journalism class. Joaquin had a way of writing that made the characters come alive, that made you care what happened to them. Although his journalism articles have been scored for inaccuracies, his style of writing remains fluid and compelling.

The short stories in Nick Joaquin's prose and poems were a revelation. Here was someone who came of age during a great World War, someone who could write as feelingly about the genteel glitter of the past as he could about the ruptures and uncertainties of the present.

The author's note at the back of the book says that Joaquin started out as a poet but shifted to fiction after the war. I think that the change was for the better. His poetry is often weighed down by classic (read Greek and Roman) tones and styles, but his fiction flies free.

Baltasar and Blimunda

I'm noticing a common theme here. I can only say in my defense that I'm still reading literature as opposed to trashy romance novels.

Baltasar and Blimunda tells the story of two lovers in 18th century Portugal, when the auto-da-fe was held every year and the people were were still subjects of a king.

For all its commentary on power and religion, Baltasar and Blimunda lacks the devastation of Blindness. There were times when I was horrified by that book, but I still had to go on reading it.

Baltasar and Blimunda is a gentler tale, where the travails of the title characters are set against a painstakingly-researched background. There is a stronger element of magical realism here, and Saramago often inserts self-conscious commentary that the thoughts that his peasant characters are thinking were simply conjured up by an educated narrator.

All Summer in a Day

This isn't one of the books that I've read but I was thinking about Ray Bradbury's short story when I read his interview in the Paris Review.

In my mind the time frame was magnified to fifty years. I reread part of the story again and found that it was only seven. But still, poor child.

This is what Bradbury says about writing:

"Style is truth. Once you nail down what you want to say about yourself and your fears and your life, then that becomes your style and you go to those writers who can teach you how to use words to fit your truth."

He didn't go to college, but instead, went to the library, where he graduated after ten years of three-night-a-week visits.

What I read almost makes me rethink about getting an MFA, but then I remind myself that Ray Bradbury had a wonderful wife who supported him while he stayed at home and wrote stories. He went to New York and shopped what would become his first book around because his first child was about to be born.

I still feel like I need a space of time where I can immerse myself completely in reading and writing. So for now, I'm still going for that MFA.

Gut Symmetries

What can I say about Jeanette Winterson? That reading her is like watching a stone fall in a calm, clear pool. You can stay for hours just watching the resulting ripples.

The piece of Jeanette Winterson writing that I love the most is her short story The 24-Hour Dog. I read it while I was still in college and I've never forgotten it. I photocopy my photocopy and pass it on to friends.

Who wouldn't fall in love with writing like this?

If time is a river, we shall all meet death by water.

&

And after symmetries of autumn, symmetries of austerity. Bare winter's thin beauty, rib and spine. The back of him sharp-boned, my hands leaf-broad covering him, patterning us. Us making love on the leaf-shed in the cold of the year.

&

We think of ourselves as linear but it is the spin of the earth that allows us to observe time.

& finally:

Whatever it is that pulls the pin, that hurls you past the boundaries of your own life into a brief and total beauty, even for a moment, it is enough.

Her writing speaks for itself.

Showbiz Lengua

Alam nyo ba kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng IRAN? Ikaw Rin ang Nawalan.

Isa pa: PARANAQUE: Please Always Remain Adorable, Nice, And Quiet...Under Ectasy.

Ilan lang yan sa mga napulot kong acronym mula sa Showbiz Lengua, ang kalipulan ng mga kolum ni Sir Pete Lacaba tungkol sa lengguwahe para sa Yes! Magazine.

(imahe mula sa blog ni Sir Pete)

Minsan, nakaupo ako sa harap sa LitJourn seminar class niya at kumakain ako ng puttanesca. Sabi niya, "Alam mo ba ang puttanesca pagkain ng mga puta sa Italy? Kaya siya tinawag na puttanesca."

Mula nang nagsulat si Nick Joaquin bilang Quijano de Manila, kakaunti pa lang ang nagtangkang magsulat ng literary journalism sa Pilipinas. Isa na rito (na tinitingala ko) ay si Sir Pete.

Ang ilang sa mga natutunan ko sa klase niya: kailangan kapag nagsusulat ng literary journalism, ilublob mo ang iyong sarili sa paggawa ng kwento. Tanungin mo yung kausap mo kung anong iniisip niya. Tumambay ka kasama niya at makipaghuntahan ka. Pansinin mo ang lahat -- ang kanyang suot, ang lapis na umiikot-ikot sa pagitan ng kanyang mga daliri, ang stasyon ng radyo na pinakikinggan niya, pati ang mga taong dumadaan.

Dapat din, paghusayan mo ang iyong pagsusulat para kapag may sinulat kang magandang pangungusap, hindi ito magmumukhang out of place sa sinusulat mong reportage.

Kaya naman mahirap talaga magsulat ng literary journalism. At dahil kakarampot ang kita ng mga mamahayag at manunulat, kailangan nilang rumaket.

Sinabi sa amin minsan ni Sir Pete na akala niya part-time lang ang posisyon sa Yes! Magazine noong tinanggap niya ito. Pero mabuti na rin na nandoon siya dahil sa dulo ng mga glossy photos at writeups tungkol sa mga artista, may natatanging El Lenguador na naglalaro ng lengguwahe.

Pilgrims

I've loved Elizabeth Gilbert ever since I read her article Coyote Ugly in GQ. A wide-eyed Gilbert went to the interview in a cardigan and was told that she was wearing too many clothes. She eventually learned how to outdrink her regulars (keep a mug of Coke handy, whenever you take a swig, spit it out into the mug).

But I couldn't read Eat, Pray, Love. I couldn't even finish the first first page.

I fared better with Gilbert's first novel, Stern Men. But what I really wanted to read was her first collection of stories, Pilgrims. So as soon as I saw a copy, I bought it. Nevermind that I'm trying to save money. I can control my cravings for clothes and food. But I admit it, I'm addicted to books.

From Pilgrims, I learned that sunflowers always face east in the morning and west at dusk. Gilberts said in an interview that instead of getting an MFA, she crisscrossed the country and wrote.

What I plan to do is get and MFA and then wander.

"Like Eat, Pray, Love," my sister said. No, I'm not running away from a devastating divorce. But I am looking for something.

Mesa Para sa Isa

Naalala ko si Caloy nang binasa ko ang tulang Dalitpuri ni Elynia Mabanglo. Nariyan ang paglalaro sa salita:

tayo na kung gayon
at pabinyagan sa dilim ang kamatayang
bumabaha sa ating silid
may panahon para sa mga dugong
dumadaloy sa lansangan
may panahon para sa kamay na umiilag
sa pagtatakipsilim ng mga bituin
may panahon para masambot
ang tula ng mga tala

Bago mag-ed exam noon, humiram si Caloy ng kalipulan ng mga tula ni Mabanglo para raw makatulong sa paggawa niya ng katsibong.

Kasama sa New Year's resolutions ko ngayong taon na muling magsulat sa Filipino. Muli akong nagsisimula sa payak na paraan. Nagsusulat ako kung paano ako magsalita.

Sinabi ni Elynia Mabanglo sa paunang salita na dumalang na ang pagsulat niya ng tula mula nang tumira siya sa Hawaii. Wala na raw kasi siyang kahuntahan tungkol sa panitikan kaya mas mahirap magsulat.

Samantalang ako, nasa Pilipinas pero nahihirapan ring magsulat sa Filipino. Kaya naman kailangan ko pang magbasa nang magbasa hanggang magsimula akong kumatha.

One book a month

Is one of my New Year's Resolutions. I was appalled by how much crap (read: romance novels) I read last year so I've resolved to do better this year.


And I've actually finished reading a book!

I picked it up because it was a New York Times notable book for 2010, and also because it was a romance. So there.

I happily read one chapter a night until the last few chapters grabbed me by the throat. I couldn't go to sleep until I had finished it.

So far, so good.

The Shakespeare Reading Challenge

After one friend's successful undertaking to read one book a month last year, I was inspired to do the same.

To add another twist, I decided to take up the Shakespeare Reading Challenge -- the easiest level, Puck, is to read four plays this year. Something that I can very easily do. I've always wanted to read Shakespeare's plays, but I never got to take a Shakespeare survey course in college.

Here's Puck. He's ugly, as befits a trickster. But I'm sure that he can change his form at will.



So I got a list of Shakespeare plays to read from an online penpal, who's teaching Shakespeare to Korean students.

I hereby commit to reading the following plays, in no particular order:

1. Twelfth Night
2. King Lear
3. The Tempest
4. Measure for Measure

My online pal advises watching each play before I read it, which I think is a good idea. As he points out, plays are meant to be watched, not read. He also recommends buying good annotated versions of each play so that I can actually understand what they're talking about.

Any recommendations?

On another note, I didn't update this blog at all last year but I did manage to make some headway on a novel before ultimately deciding to abandon it. I also finished a short story a couple of days ago.

I realized that I write better offline, so I probably won't be updating this blog as much except to keep track of how I'm doing with the Shakespeare Reading challenge and other various New Year's resolutions.

Here we go!

Hello NaNo!

On the eve of national writing month. Let's see if I have what it takes to write a 50,000-word novel. It should be interesting, considering that I haven't finished a short story since college. Ha. Here we go!

I'm back

Again. It's getting tiring, this disappearing and returning, this constant renewal of pledges and promises, only to be broken at the first sign of weakness.

But for today, I have eschewed Escape. And I am thinking and writing again. And that is enough.