Author: Sumthinblue

Beach Reads

The rainy season has begun, and this gloomy weather has been making me morose. I long for the beach, sprawled on the sand with a book, with the waves lapping at my feet.

This summer was lovely; aside from my trip to Hong Kong with my family, I had a beach holiday in Bohol with my officemates. I’d reserved two books for the occasion: Fairy Tale Fail and Love Your Frenemies, both by Mina V. Esguerra. It was last summer when I read Mina’s book My Imaginary Ex, that time on a business trip, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, so this time around, her latest books were my top choice for my beach trip. I’d purchased the ebooks from Smashwords and loaded them up on my Nook.

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More Maurice Sendak

I’ve been a Maurice Sendak fan ever since the book Where the Wild Things Are was read to us in grade school, and for years now, I’ve been trying to complete my Maurice Sendak collection.

I’m a little bit closer to that goal this year, as I’ve lucked out on a bunch of Maurice Sendak books in the past months: Alligators All Around: An Alphabet; The Moon Jumpers; The Miami Giant; I Saw Esau: A Schoolchild’s Pocket Book; and finally, Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation, books #56-61 for 2011.

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The Red Necklace

I enjoyed Sally Gardner’s I, Coriander (winner of Nestle Smarties Gold Award in 2005), a children’s novel set in London during the Puritan Commonwealth, an interesting blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and a little bit of romance. Her next novel, The Red Necklace, came out a couple of years later, and I got myself a copy, and then, typical of me, forgot about it until I dug it out of my TBR inventory during Holy Week.

I took it with me during our company outing to Bohol last month, and because the flight was delayed, I managed to finish it before our plane landed.

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The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

My cousin Dianne told me I would love the Winnie the Pooh ride at Hong Kong Disneyland, although she said it was a bit complicated to explain, so I would just have to see for myself.

As much of a Disney junkie that I am, I’ve gone back and forth on the Disney Pooh. In high school, Winnie the Pooh was all the rage and I had a ton of Pooh stuff, but I outgrew the phase long before the oversized Winnie the Pooh my godmother gave me for Christmas lost its stuffing. Later on I rediscovered the original Winnie the Pooh, with the exquisite drawings by EH Shepard, and I’ve been a fan of classic Pooh ever since.

It was rainy when we got to Hong Kong Disneyland, so we decided to do the indoor rides while waiting for the rain to let up. So we queued up for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Fantasyland, and Dianne was right — I did enjoy it, not only because I’m not a thrill ride sort of person (I did go on Space Mountain that night, but of course, that isn’t even a thrill ride for normal people!), but also because it turned out to be a bookish ride!

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The Contract with God Trilogy

I’ve read a bunch of Eisner award-winning works in the past couple of years, but I never got to read anything by Will Eisner until a friend lent me a copy of his masterpiece, The Contract with God Trilogy last year. Shame that I only got to read it this year (I’m sorry!), but the guilt of having someone’s much-treasured book with me for so long (even though I took care of it really well!) finally got to me, so I’m posting this review so I can finally return it (with an additional peace offering!).

Will Eisner (1917-2005), for whom the most prestigious graphic novel awards are named, was an American comics writer and artist, often touted as the father of the graphic novel. While he did not create the first graphic work nor coin the term “graphic novel,” the publication of A Contract with God in 1978 was a landmark development that contributed to the establishment and cult popularity of the genre.

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