Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
Posts tagged New York
Suzanne Collins Marathon
Aug 18th
Still counting down to Mockingjay!
In an attempt to slake my excitement over Mockingjay, I brought out all the Suzanne Collins books in my possession (and bought one more) and have been reading voraciously for the past five days. I started with Gregor the Overlander, the first book of the Underland Chronicles last Friday, but I didn’t have book 2 yet so I decided to reread Hunger Games and Catching Fire on Saturday. By Sunday, I was already reaching for the copy of Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane that I’d bought the day before. And then I started reading Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods yesterday, and now I’m out of the Underland Chronicles, so the marathon’s on hold (at least until I can find myself copies of Gregor and the Marks of Secret and Gregor and the Code of the Claw).
Queen of Babble Gets Hitched
Aug 7th
I’ve been following Meg Cabot’s Queen of Babble series for some years now, but was only recently able to get ahold of the third book, Queen of Babble Gets Hitched via some very kind moochers on BookMooch.
Lizzie Nichols has always been a charming protagonist, and I’ve enjoyed reading the first two books in the series — Queen of Babble, and Queen of Babble in the Big City. Lizzie is a a twenty-something with old-fashioned sensibilities, and a talent for restoring vintage dresses. The series follows her life (and lovelife) as she ventures out of her hometown and away from her family to make it on her own.
Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!
Jul 30th
I was watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Leonard celebrates his birthday, and Wollowitz presents him with a signed copy of Feynman’s Lectures on Physics. By then I’d watched enough BBT episodes to know that Richard Feynman won a Nobel Prize for Physics (and is somewhat of a god to theoretical physicists), but I had a nagging feeling I’d come across that name somewhere else.
Last week, I was rooting through my shelves for a book to swap at the FFP book discussion, when I spotted a book I’d forgotten about, a copy of Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character), a semi-autobiographical collection of stories narrated by Feynman, caught on tape by his friend Ralph Leighton. I’d gotten it for about P30 at a Scholastic warehouse sale last year, and I got it mainly because the cover looked interesting and I had a bag to fill, but I had no idea what it was about.
All about Eloise
Jul 22nd
Eloise is one of my favorite children’s book characters, although not one I know from childhood (unlike Babar, Madeline, Curious George, or Tintin). I only discovered Eloise when I saw the old movie (with Julie Andrews as Nanny) on Disney channel when I was in college and learned that it was based on a book.
Eloise is a feisty six-year old girl living at The Plaza Hotel in New York City (hahaha, like Grandmere in The Princess Diaries, also played by Julie Andrews but in the movie she has a state home on the Genovian embassy grounds) in a book series by Kay Thompson illustrated by Hilary Knight. If you’ve seen Eloise, you’re bound to remember her forever, with the wild hair adorned with a flouncy bow, and the ruffled blouse and jumper ensemble (and pink knickers underneath!).
In the Shadow of No Towers
Jun 18th
Spotting a sale sign at a bookstore always activates a panic button in me. It never fails to elicit that heart-pounding, wide-eyed excitement at the prospect of finding a book to add to my shelf, and after years of practice I think I’m fairly proficient at spotting a gem in the bargain bin. Still, I can never get enough of that heady feeling of getting a great book at an outrageously low price.
Just last month, after the Art inFiction book discussion, the Fully Booked Greenbelt branch was on sale, and because there was a line for our dinner table at Chili’s we couldn’t resist the lure of the bargain tables laid out in the storefront. Something shiny caught my eye as soon as I reached the table. Bingo — In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman, and, hold your breath, at 80% off, marked down from P958 to under P200! (around $4, never mind that it’s a bit scuffed, it’s a ginormous board book!).
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsmith)
Mar 15th
I was in the mood for a psychological thriller, so I finally unearthed my copy of The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I haven’t seen the 1999 film (with young Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow!), but I’ve been meaning to read the book ever since I mooched a copy, although I still have to “do a Blooey” (er, a term my book club friends coined for my compulsion for “upgrading” mass market paperbacks into trade paperbacks and trade paperbacks into hardcovers) on it — it’s a movie cover and a mass market paperback.
The Talented Mr. Ripley was written in 1955, and is the first of a series of novels featuring a conman and anti-hero named Tom Ripley (the other books being Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water). The novel was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
The Verdict on Percy Jackson
Mar 9th
I’ve had the Percy Jackson books thrust at me by random people because they know I’m a big Harry Potter fan, and people who really know me can tell them that the more people foist a book on me the less likely I am to pick it up. Hence, it’s taken me a while to pick up the Percy Jackson books.
I originally read the first book because I was planning on seeing the movie, but changed my mind about the movie when I heard it was a long way away from the book. So I ended up reading on in the series instead. I finished all five books in the space of one week in February: the first two books in one night, and the next three books (borrowed from my cousin Chickoy) in one sitting.
Here goes my verdict post.
A few more Christmas reads
Jan 2nd
Because my plan to catch up with my blogging backlog over the holidays was an epic fail (so little time, so much to do!) , I will spend part of January in an attempt to mow it down to zero, so I can start fresh for 2010.
I am posting a list of the backlog in a subsequent entry (still working through the stacks), but I’m posting a few more of the Christmas reads, otherwise it’ll take me another year before I can post them again.
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