Year: 2010

American Book Fair at National Book Store

U.S. Embassy’s Commercial Counselor Patrick Wall, National Book Store general manager Socorro Ramos and U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Leslie A. Bassett check out the wide selection of American literature on display.

From May 1 to 8, selected branches of National Bookstore will hold an American Book Fair, mounted in partnership with the U.S. Embassy – Commercial Service to introduce new American titles to the local market.

“The book fair focuses on small and independent American publishers without local representation, that have never been exposed to the Philippine market,” states Xandra Ramos of National Book Store. “We are showcasing choice titles from 24 American publishers so they can try and test the market, and we plan to reorder the titles that do well at the fair.”

Over a hundred titles are showcased at the American Book Fair, including children’s books, health books,  work books, reference books, biographies and memoirs, religion and spirituality, world events, business books, and fiction. Among the titles to be found at the fair are:  Graphic Biography: Barack Obama (Saddleback Publishing); Democracy is a Good Thing (Brookings Institution Press); Balikbayan: A Filipino Homecoming (Bess Press); children’s book My Senses: Mis Sentidos (Me+Mi Publishing, Inc.), and the Essential Skills series (Teacher Created Resources).

National Book Store showcases the American Book Fair at eight branches, including  Trinoma, Glorietta 5, SM Mall of Asia, Superbranch-Cubao, Power Plant Mall, Quezon Avenue and Shangri-la Plaza Mall until May 8, 2010.

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photo and event details from National Book Store

Meg Cabot again

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!).

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Ex-Libris Philippines’ Concert for a Cause

Just a short plug about a fundraising project initiated by Ex-Libris Philippines, a SEC-certified, non-stock, non-profit organization of book enthusiasts. Concert for a Cause is Ex-Libris’ 3rd fundraising project; their first two fundraisers have sent deserving but financially challenged students to school at  the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

Concert for a Cause features performances by soprano Gabriela Francisco (BM Voice Summa cum laude and Valedictory Address Speaker during the UP Centennial Commencement Exercises 2008), her twin sister Tata Francisco, together with faculty, alumni and gifted students of the UP College of Music. All funds to be raised will go to the Scholarship Project. The concert will be on May 21, 2010, Friday, 6 p.m. at the UP College of Music, Nicanor Abelardo Hall.

Tickets are at Php 300.00 each. For tickets, please contact Tata Francisco at 0920-9470861, or Gabi Francisco at 0920-9470835. You can also email them at teachertata[at]gmail[dot]com, or gabitwin[at]gmail[dot]com.

Learn more about Ex-Libris Philippines at http://exlibrisphilippines.multiply.com.

Help me bookmarks

After the Ilustrado book launch, I was wandering around National Book Store with Flipper friend Ruby (who’s just moved her blog, by the way — I have to update my links!),  because I needed new paintbrushes for the project I’m currently working on and I found these nifty bookmarks!

As you all know, I’ve started collecting bookmarks (apt, don’t you think, since the title of my blog is ‘Bookmarked!’?), and I wanted these for my collection. These brightly colored bookmarks caught my eye — four to a set in purple, orange, yellow, and sky blue, not bad for P75 (less than $2), and I found it’s priced higher at the other bookstores (P100 at another bookstore and a whopping P275 at another!).

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Ilustrado

For the past few weeks, I’ve been raving about Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado” to anyone who will listen! Hahaha, I’ve even managed to convince a bunch of people to go out and get copies (Dianne and Mike and Mike’s uncle, haha —  I hope you like it as much I did!) because I couldn’t contain my excitement about it. Here’s my full length review (originally published in Manila Bulletin), and I hope it makes more people want to read it!

“When the author’s life of literature and exile reached its unscheduled terminus that anonymous February morning, he was close to completing the controversial book we’d all been waiting for.”

Thus begins Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado,” winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Award and the Palanca Award, recently launched in the Philippine edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (International release is due this week — I think I’ll get myself a trade paperback of the international edition). I was waiting to board a plane to Davao, and I relished the ominous beginning as I settled down at the airport lounge for the first few chapters of this highly anticipated read.

Filipino writer-in-exile Crispin Salvador’s corpse is found floating in the Hudson River, and his student, Miguel Syjuco (yes, the same name as the author), wants answers.  Miguel sets out to piece together Salvador’s life with fragments of his mentor’s body of work, personal history, interviews with friends and relatives, and other sources, telling his own life story along the way.

“Ilustrado” is not your typical Filipino novel, eschewing carabaos in the fields and sunlight the color of mangoes in favor of epistolary-style metafiction that uncannily mirrors Philippine culture, history and politics.

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