One of the books I had to read in 2009 to complete my book club’s Diversity challenge was something I kept putting off until the last weeks of December: a Dracula spinoff entitled Mina by Marie Kiraly (Book #234 of 2010).

It was a partner-recommended book and not something I’d pick up on my own — I’m wary of  literary adaptations and I cringe at the thought of paranormal bodice-slashers. Even though I’d mooched two copies of the book (one hardcover and one trade paperback), I had my apprehensions about it.

But the deadline was looming, and I’d run out of reprieves, so I decided that I might as well get it done with.

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“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, “We haven’t got Father, and shall not have him for a long time.” She didn’t say “perhaps never,” but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.

Who can forget these first few lines from the opening chapter of the much-loved classic, Little Women?

Louisa May Alcott really has a knack for writing Christmas stories, and I discovered a couple of them this week (erm, while getting my hair done at the salon) — The Quiet Little Woman, and The Abbot’s Ghost (books 204-205 of 2009) .

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Towards the end of the year I get so bogged down with events that I end up missing a book discussion! Last year it was the Halloween discussion, and this year, it was the Pride and Prejudice discussion, which, incidentally, was also originally scheduled in October (moved to November, due to the storms).

The task was to read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and read an offshoot book based on the classic for the discussion that our resident Austen fan, Honey, was moderating at the Raul Roco garden and library in Antipolo.

I made sure to finish the books (Pride and Prejudice, Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer and Lost in Austen, a create your own Jane Austen adventure, by Emma Campbell Webster — books 167-169 for 2009) for the discussion, and was all set to go when plans went awry. Sigh. So there, that photo on the cover (taken by Jeeves de Veyra) is from the discussion slash tea party, which looked mighty fun (waah!). I hope they post a recap soon, as I’m dying to hear about what happened.

I’m posting a review of the books I read for the discussion here, anyway, to make up for missing it (waah again!).

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Surprising revelations are in store for 39 Clues treasure hunters as Scholastic’s landmark multimedia action-adventure series comes out with the sixth volume, In Too Deep, in the race to uncover the Cahill family legacy.

Jude Watson (a pen name for Judy Blundell) returns with her second book in the multi-authored ten-book series. Watson previously penned the fourth volume, Beyond the Grave, which led the series to jump on to the US national bestseller lists, hitting the highest bestseller list ranking for the series to date on USA Today.

In In Too Deep, Dan and Amy Cahill find themselves in the Pacific, where the adventure takes them out on the Australian surf, then deep into the Australian outback, and eventually in the tropics of Indonesia.

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When I was in the hospital, my cousin Chickoy lent me his chindogu book, 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami (book #139 for 2009) to keep my mind off blood tests and platelet counts. And it worked, too, as the book kept me plenty entertained for a whole afternoon.

I’ve always been fascinated with Japanese ingenuity — I love going to the Japanese one price stores (here we have Saizen and Japan Home Center) to blow my money on all sorts of things, from plastic boxes with multiple compartments, gashapon display cases, nylon book cases, clip-on reading lamps, wrapping paper, pet toys, shoe racks, felt crafting materials, beanie pillows, bamboo mats, and all sorts of stuff I don’t really need but are fun to buy and convenient to have around!

Anyway, chindogu is the term for Japanese inventions for everyday gadgets to provide solutions for common problems. Chindogu has a distinctive characteristic, however, as the solution it presents causes even more problems, i.e. embarassment, unwieldiness, etc. They are not totally useless, just problematic, hence the term “unuseless.”

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