2009 – Page 17 – Bookmarked!

What’s on your desk Wednesday

I’ve been tagged twice for What’s on your desk Wednesday — once by Vanessa last month and by Peter last week so I am finally doing it tonight, because I’m really swamped and don’t have the luxury of time to finish the next review I am in the middle of composing (or the twelve more I have to write)…

So here goes!

What’s on your desk Wednesday? is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Sassy Brit of Alternative-Read.com, involving taking a photo of your desk or where you stack your books/TBR pile as it is (and swear no tidying!) and then blogging about it (click on the link to Sassy Brit for full mechanics).

I’ve been hedging because my desk is a mess, especially right now because I’m working on some book illustrations and have virtually no time to tidy up or to write as many reviews as I normally do and read on top of all that too.

(Warning to those viewing from the home page: The photo is behind the cut because it’s kind of scary, haha.

Sure you’re up to it? Well then take a deep breath, and click on the MORE button, but don’t blame me — the instructions say no tidying!)

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the girl who played go

I was rummaging in the bargain bin at Book Sale when a jacketless hardcover book caught my eye — creamy ochre with a red spine. The title, the girl who played go by Shan Sa (book # 111 of 2009, #18 for the FFP Diversity Challenge) sounded interesting, and as the summary was lost to the missing dust jacket, I decided to get it anyway, because it was only P50 (around $1).

I knew that Go is the Chinese strategy game comparable to chess (or checkers), and because I’ve read some novels that revolve around chess, such as The Eight by Katherine Neville and The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, I was quite intrigued by this book.

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In Remembrance of Botong

Yesterday This week, I went on a media tour to Angono, Rizal, touted to be the “Art Capital of the Philippines.”

Angono has produced two National Artists, namely Carlos “Botong” Francisco (for visual art) and Lucio San Pedro (for music), and several well-known artists such as Nemiranda, the Blanco family of painters, and Perdigon. In recent years, younger generations of artists have emerged in Angono and art galleries and studios are a familiar sight in this municipality.

The subject of our tour was Angono’s most famous son, Botong Francisco, best known for his sprawling murals (some up to 200 feet!) that are a familiar sight to Filipinos as a lot of them are displayed in prominent institutions. His masterpieces, which depict historical scenes and Filipino communities, include the Malacañang mural “Fiesta”, “Blood Compact” (Yuchengco Museum / RCBC Building), “First Mass at Limasawa” (National Museum), “The Martyrdom of Rizal” (Fort Santiago), and “Stations of the Cross” (Far Eastern University).

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Foodie Fiction

choco

I like reading novels about food — the foodie in me relishes reading about food almost as much as feasting on the real thing. Sometimes the words are even better, because they always taste good in the imagination, as opposed to a dish that makes your mouth water as you read the menu but falls flat when you take the first bite.

This weekend, by chance, I read two foodie novels: The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris, and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (books # 111 and 112 of 2009, and LWFC for the Diversity Challenge- Latin American).

The two novels are no strangers to me — The Lollipop Shoes is the sequel to Chocolat, which I read last year, and Like Water for Chocolate is a book I first read back in sophomore year in high school, when we discussed Latin American literature.

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Joie de Vivre! (Two from Susie Morgenstern)

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I’d never heard of Susie Morgenstern before I picked up a hardbound copy of A Book of Coupons (#109 for 2009) from the Book Sale bargain bin. It was P15, in pristine condition, and I initially thought it was one of those booklets that had tear-out coupons for little good deeds that you could give out to friends and family members.

When I got home, I realized it was a chapter book and read it in one sitting. A few weeks later, I found a copy of Susie Morgenstern’s Secret Letters from 0 to 10 (#110 for 2009) for P10 at a roving book sale and I ended up reading it in one sitting too!

Reading the back flap of one of the books, I found out that Susie Morgenstern is one of the most popular children’s book writers in France, with over forty books for children. Interestingly, while she writes primarily in French, she is an American who moved to the south of France over thirty years ago! Her recent books, however, have been translated in English, so now more readers have been enjoying her books.

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