Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
The romance writers’ scene is one of the most vibrant in the Philippine book industry — there’s been quite a number of titles churned out in the last few years and I can’t seem to read them fast enough.
Because this month of love is fast running out of days, here’s a romance roundup, plus a little giveaway at the end of this post!
This year’s Alcala Prize, the annual illustration honor given by the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY), is now open for entries.
The winner, to be awarded on National Children’s Book Day on July 21, will receive a cash prize of P25,000, a gold medal and an opportunity to be published.
Continue reading “Call for Entries: PBBY Alcala Prize, Ang INK Applications”
If there’s one thing I love more than books, it’s books about books. For a book lover, there’s always extra pleasure to be derived from books that deal with bookstores and libraries, bookish characters, and paragraphs and paragraphs that wax poetic about books (*sigh*).
I’ve read a bunch of them in the last few months, so I’ve put together some capsule reviews for you. Included in this selection are: “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin; “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore” and “Ajax Penumbra: 1969” by Robin Sloan; “The Library of Unrequited Love” by Sophie Divry; “The Strange Library” by Haruki Murakami; and “84, Charing Cross Road” by Helene Hanff.
(image via Pangasinan.gov.ph)
When my book club, Flips Flipping Pages, held a Rosales Saga readalong last year, I jumped on the chance to acquaint myself with National Artist F. Sionil Jose’s work, because while I’ve read his newspaper articles and even dropped by his book shop once in a blue moon, I had never read any of his novels.
The Rosales Saga is considered F. Sionil Jose’s masterpiece, composed of five books: “Po-on,” “Tree,” “My Brother, My Executioner,” “The Pretenders” and “Mass.” Set in F. Sionil Jose’s hometown of Rosales, Pangasinan, the series revolves around several generations of two families, the peasant Samsons and the wealthy Asperris.
(photo via https://twitter.com/nbsalert/)On Sunday, I got to chat with New York Times bestselling author James Frey and was quite surprised to find that he was a jeans-and-shirt kind of guy, joking around with his fans (some of whom he was already on a first-name basis with!) and gamely signing books for the waitress that served our coffee.
While his reputation precedes him, I admittedly I have never read any of James Frey’s books (“A Million Little Pieces,” “My Friend Leonard,” and “Bright Shiny Morning,” nor any of the Pittacus Lore books). I read the first of his new YA trilogy “Endgame: The Calling” (which he co-wrote with Nils Johnson-Shelton) and found it quite enjoyable.
