Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
In my quest to get those creative juices running again (and to push myself to draw by hand), I’ve been amassing stocking up on all sorts of books with drawing prompts and other creative exercises.
The stack has grown and I haven’t made a lot of headway through them, but my current favorite of the bunch is a book called “Craft-A-Doodle.”
I had loved The Godfather when I read it two years ago, so my curiosity was piqued when I got an ARC of “Vendetta,” a mafia-themed YA romance, which I had especially reserved for a session at a nail salon (I swear, one of the best places to get reading done!)
The debut novel of Catherine Doyle, “Vendetta” (the first in the Blood for Blood series) is set in the small town of Cedar Hill, where Sophie Gracewell’s life takes an exciting turn when a family of five Italian boys move into the abandoned mansion in her neighborhood.
Today, March 4, is the global celebration of World Read Aloud Day, and I took some time off to celebrate it with ATD Fourth World Philippines, representing our book club, Flips Flipping Pages.
Last month, I had come across Adarna House’s book giveaway and thought we had a good chance of winning it for ATD, and I proposed the idea to fellow Flippers Gege and Sana. Sana is a long-time volunteer of ATD and has gotten me and other book club members to volunteer at the organization, too, so we quickly put the nomination form together and hoped for the best.
Our book club’s first unofficial discussion for the year was “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski, and I had gotten the book with the intention of joining the discussion last Friday, but I wasn’t able to finish it in time so I stayed home (in fear of discussion spoilers) to make some headway on the book. I did finish it a few days later, and I was well and truly befuddled.
In “House of Leaves,” multiple narratives converge to tell us the strange story of a young man (Johnny Truant) who comes across a manuscript by his old neighbor, Zampano. Zampano has written a study of what appears to be a non-existent film (“The Navidson Record,” a Blair Witch-y documentary by award-winning photographer Will Navidson about a house that is (*gasp*) bigger on the inside, with closets and hallways popping up and disappearing every so often.
I was only a year old when the EDSA Revolution happened, and what I knew of it, I learned in history class: the Martial Law, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, the snap elections, the military standoff, and the People Power.
While I have always been thankful to the generation that took to the streets to fight for the freedom that I enjoy as a Filipino today (traffic-geddon notwithstanding :s), I am glad that we have access to materials in commemoration of the EDSA revolution, giving us a chance to revisit this chapter of Philippine history, and read about the stories that should never be forgotten.
In honor of the EDSA revolution, here’s a roundup of EDSA-themed reading: “EDSA Uno: Narrative and Analysis with Notes on Dos & Tres” by Angela Stuart-Santiago, “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos”/”Imelda Marcos: The Rise and Fall of One of the World’s Most Powerful Women” by Carmen Navarro Pedrosa; “Salingkit” by Cyan Abad-Jugo; “Isang Harding Papel” by Augie Rivera and Rommel Joson, and “EDSA” by Russell Molina and Sergio Bumatay III.
