Author: Sumthinblue

The Rough Guide to the 31st Manila International Book Fair

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and before I knew it, voila — it’s now the eve of the opening of the much-awaited Manila International Book Fair, the biggest book event in the country!

Now I know a lot of you have been waiting for the rough guide to this year’s book fair like the one I posted last year. A bit of the background — the nature of my work requires me to attend the Manila International Book Fair year after year (contrary to popular belief I  don’t actually get to shop until the last few days!), and this is the sixth year running now. While I generally make my rounds, I do have some top picks for the must-see booths.

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Mini Shopaholic


It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Sophie Kinsella, and as soon as I heard there was another book in the Shopaholic series coming out in early September, I started skulking around bookstores to get my copy.

Mini Shopaholic is the sixth book in Kinsella’s wildly popular Shopaholic series, following the books The Confessions of a Shopaholic (in UK it’s The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic), Shopaholic Takes Manhattan (UK Shopaholic Abroad), Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Shopaholic and Sister, and Shopaholic and Baby.

While my favorite Sophie Kinsella books are outside of the Shopaholic series (I love Undomestic Goddess, and the last one, Twenties Girl), Becky Bloomwood has grown on me as I read the novels. I was a bit outraged at her addiction to shopping in the first two books, but well, later on, I realized there’s a little Becky Bloomwood inside of me: the book shopper (hahaha!). And I really love the supporting cast in the series —  the dreamy Luke Brandon, the delightful Suze and Tarkie, the oddballs Jess and Tom, Becky’s folks Jane and Graham, their next-door neighbor Janice, the wild and wacky designer Danny Kovitz, and dear old Derek Smeath!

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Mockingjay Giveaway!

I meant to do this earlier, but September is always the busiest month in my year so this month’s posts have been sporadic at best…

Anyway, I have an extra copy of Mockingjay, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy, a complimentary copy from Scholastic (because I co-moderated the discussion at the Mockingjay launch party), so I’m raffling it off.

Check out the mechanics after the cut.

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Heroes vs. Villains


Earlier this year, I blogged about The Action Heroine’s Handbook, a handy guide for wannabe kick-ass chicks, which details instructions on a variety of useful action heroine skills, such as winning a catfight, drinking someone under the table, choking a man with your bare thighs.

Months later, I received its companion volume, The Action Hero’s Handbook, that I requested from BookMooch, followed, quite aptly, by a copy of The Villain’s Guide to Better Living.
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The Mockingjay Launch Party, in photos




The article I wrote on the Mockingjay launch party came out on the Manila Bulletin last Saturday, but since I already blogged about the Quarter Quell LARP, I’ll just share a bunch of photos instead. Check out this awesome day of bookish fun!

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