Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
Posts tagged young adult
The Mockingjay has landed!
Aug 28th
(first published in Manila Bulletin)
The long wait is finally over for fans of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, as “Mockingjay,” the final installment in Scholastic’s hottest property since Harry Potter, was released worldwide this week.
Since “Mockingjay” was announced in December 2009, fans have kept an eye on the countdown clock as they held their breaths on the fate of the series heroine, Katniss Everdeen, and the nation of Panem. Much of the fandom is based online: fan pages, countdown counters and badges, miles of fan fiction, online book clubs and book discussions, and blog tours.
“Mockingjay” has been so highly anticipated that even those in the literary circles were scrabbling about for advance copies, but to no avail. Scholastic kept it under wraps, more closely guarded than “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” that furor ensued all over the internet when Andrew Sims, administrator of Harry Potter fan site mugglenet.com, tweeted that he got ahold of a copy nearly two weeks before the release.
And when a video of Suzanne Collins reading the first few paragraphs of “Mockingjay” was posted on the internet one day before the release, fans all over the world hung on to her every word.
Hearing Voices
Aug 17th
I like good, strong voices in fiction. I like characters that ring true, make a distinct impression, and keep me engaged in the story.
In the past week, I read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley. These two novels each offered a unique point of view: one from the outside looking in, and the other from inside looking out.
The London Eye Mystery
Jul 7th
I was out of town with my cousins last weekend for a special marathon of our current favorite show,The Big Bang Theory, and what is fast becoming a weekend tradition: gaming (the hidden object and action strategy type). Dianne mentioned a book she read recently, and of course when either of us talks about a book we like, the other eventually reads it (because we feed off each other’s compulsions that way!), and so I ended up borrowing her copy of The London Eye Mystery with me to read in between our marathon sessions.
The Blood Stone
Jun 16th
I spotted Jamila Gavin’s The Blood Stone in a bargain bin some months back; the squarish shape of the book caught my eye. Then I read the back of the book and I was even more intrigued — it promised “a dazzling whirlwind of a journey, over seas and across the desert, into the very heart of danger,” and the clincher — it starts out in Venice, one of my all-time favorite settings for a novel (yes, I judge the book by the setting)! At P40 (less than $1), I couldn’t pass.
I went on a daytrip out of town for work, and the first book I grabbed off the shelf happened to be this one, and I ended up finishing the novel even before I made it back to the city.
The Prince of Mist
Jun 2nd
Finally, I have a new review to post!
Since last February, I’ve been counting the days until I could get my hands on a copy of Carlos Ruiz Zaf0n’s young adult novel The Prince of Mist. I got a copy as soon as it hit the bookstores — the first week of May, I think, and read it the very same night. I’ve been meaning to review it for some time now, but work has piled up (again) and I haven’t had the luxury of time for blogging.
Anyway, if you don’t know Carlos Ruiz Zafon, he fast became one of my favorite authors after reading The Shadow of The Wind, the bestselling novel that catapulted him into fame, and earned him the post of Spain’s most widely read contemporary author after Miguel de Cervantes — and Cervantes has had a good five centuries to build up his readership.
Meg Cabot again
Apr 29th
When my mom arrived from the US early this year, I finally got the two Meg Cabot books I’d mooched from the US, and I finally got around to reading them: Pants on Fire and Airhead.
I’ve been reading Meg Cabot for what seems like ages now, and she’s a steady choice for my chick lit fix, judging by the fact that one layer of my shelf is filled with her books. I have some favorites among her books (All American Girl, Every Boy’s Got One and The Boy Next Door); some I didn’t care for (Heather Wells series, the Princess Diaries after book 5, Nicola and the Viscount, Victoria and the Rogue); some I found horrid (Ready or Not) and some I don’t want to read at all (Mediator series and the 1-800 series), but all in all her repertoire is a good mix for girls of all ages — hip and easy-breezy books perfect for vegging out on the couch on a lazy Saturday afternoon (or procrastinating on a weeknight for that matter!).
World War II Challenge Wrap-Up
Jan 2nd
I successfully finished the War through the Generations World War II reading challenge this December, but I haven’t been able to blog properly in the last ten days or so, with the holiday rush. Hopefully this entry still makes it.
For 2009, I’ve read:
1) The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
2) Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
This month, I finished Stones in Water by Donna Jo Napoli, and A Separate Peace by John Knowles.
The first of the flash reviews
Dec 15th
I’ve been meaning to catch up on some reviewing backlog, because the to-be-reviewed pile doesn’t seem to be going down. I was saving some books for thematic reviews but the stacks have been driving me crazy, and I’m way off my target for this year, hence I’ve decided to write some flash reviews for the quick reads.
Here’s how it works: I give a summary of the book, my take on it, plus a rating.
Deep breath. Here goes:
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