Month: June 2009

Comfort Food

In a few hours, Flips Flipping Pages will be discussing books around the theme of Filipino food.

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I’ve been looking forward to this book discussion, because I think among the Flippers’ core group  we’ve already proven our foodie status ages ago! A lot of the memorable foodie experiences I’ve had in recent time are with my Flipper friends: a weekend spent snacking in Tagaytay; Mike’s hummus; our British tea party; devilishly delish dinner at Wicked Kitchen; lunch at Casa Rap; Japanese buffet at Islandhopper’s farm; the humongous Al’s Rice; a French baker’s bread, and breakfast at Yogurt House in Sagada; and French dinner buffet at Log Cabin, also in Sagada. Practically every single monthly book discussion — or just about any time we’re all together — turns into a food trip.

For this discussion, I chose to read Anvil Publishing’s Comfort Food, edited by Erlinda Enriquez Panilio, which, incidentally, also happens to be book #100 of 2009! Comfort Food is a compilation of essays by notable Filipino writers and society figures. I actually got this back in 2006 for P40 from the Anvil bargain bin at the Manila International Book Fair, and I got as far as around two essays but I was only able to finish it for the book discussion.
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Of weird wills and dangerously witty quotes

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The trivia freak in me  always finds it hard to resist novelty books, because I get my fix of perfectly useless information, and enjoy some eye candy at the same time.

Last year, as I was browsing through the bargain bins (as usual), I discovered Michelle Lovric, who’s created over a hundred illustrated novelty books! I actually recognized the author because I like novels set in Venice, and I have her novel, The Remedy, in my TBR. I bought her book, Weird Wills, for P45, and decided to search for more of her books on BookMooch, which has yielded another: Deadlier than the Male, which I mooched from abroad. Both are beautiful hardbound books that showcase Regency and Victorian etchings like the ones in the oracle I reviewed last April.

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Time for some chick lit

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I’ve been stressed out for some weeks now, and was in desperate need of a fluffy pick-me-up this weekend, so I bumped up Meg Cabot’s Princess On the Brink (Princess Diaries 8) from my TBR heap (book #97 for 2009) — more than two years after I read the 7th book.

The Princess Diaries is Meg Cabot’s bestselling chick lit series about HRH Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo (a.k.a Mia Thermopolis), Princess of Genovia (fondly referred to by her best friend Lilly Moscovitz as POG). As the series title implies, the books read like journal entries chronicling the ups and downs of the life of a teenage girl who also happens to be a princess.

I actually saw the Disney film adaptation years before I read any of the books, and I actually started with Meg Cabot’s All American Girl before I read The Princess Diaries.

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For the Love of Tintin

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One of my fondest memories of our grade school library is the hunt for Tintin comics. When I was in grade school, our library had the whole set, but everyone wanted to read them, so while they were marked “for room use only,” (maybe because copies kept disappearing) they were still not very easy to find, as most girls (well, including me and my friends when we found them) stashed them in secret hiding places around the library, often behind what we supposed were the books nobody ever read.

In case you’re not familiar with the series, The Adventures of Tintin is a comic strip series created by the Belgian artist Hergé, a.k.a.  Georges Remi (G.R. backwards is R.G., which sounds like Hergé), dating back as early as 1929, originally in French. It is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, translated in over 50 languages, with 200 million books sold worldwide. It features the reporter Tintin, who has a knack for stumbling upon mystery — and more trouble than his white fox terrier, Snowy, would care to get entangled in.

I loved the series when I was younger, and I still love it today, and so when I started earning my own money to build my book collection, Tintin comics were high on the priority list. I’ve been acquiring pieces slowly, because they’re not exactly cheap. Today they’re around P400 ($8) at Fully Booked and National Book Store, and P450 ($9) at Powerbooks so as much as I’d love the complete set, I’m just happy I’m past the halfway point. Tintin comics were never cheap, but at the rate they were selling a decade ago, I want to kick myself for starting this late.

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The 39 Clues adventure continues with 4th book

book41As the 4th installment of The 39 Clues series hits bookstore shelves this month, thousands of kids around the world embark on another leg in the quest for the Cahill family treasure.

Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson is the latest book in the action-adventure series that has taken the world by storm, released alongside The 39 Clues Card Pack 2: Branch vs. Branch, a new wave of randomly assorted collectible game cards, to span Books 4, 5, and 6, plus the simultaneous audiobook edition of “Beyond the Grave” which includes exclusive bonus material.

With over 3 million books in print, the series’ interactive reading experience is a hit with kids worldwide, with more than 500,000 online game users from 191 countries on The 39 Clues website (www.the39clues.com), and more members joining each day.

The 39 Clues features 11-year old Dan and 14-year old Amy Cahill, who discover that they belong to the world’s most powerful family. When their grandmother Grace passes away, they are made to choose their inheritance: one million dollars each, or the first clue in the quest for the legacy of the Cahill family. Choosing the key to their family’s source of power, Dan and Amy embark on a thrilling quest, with the rest of the Cahills hot on their heels in a race to a reward beyond measure.

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