Category: Book Reviews

Darjeeling

I’ve always enjoyed drinking tea, but after temporarily moving to a place with huge windows last year, I had to adjust my sleep cycle and swapped the daily coffee routine for tea. (NB: Since then we’ve moved back and my sleep cycle readjusted but I haven’t gone back to coffee). Anyway,  I was looking for a book to read with tea as its theme, when I came across the book “Darjeeling: A History of the World’s Greatest Tea” by Jeff Koehler, which was my best book for 2016.

While there’s always some Darjeeling in my tea selection, I’m actually partial to the stronger Assam or Ceylon teas, or the mellow Oolong (and quite recently, the fragrant Jasmine), so I wasn’t that keen on an entire book about Darjeeling tea, but I had read a glowing review in The Guardian so I decided to give it a try. It isn’t available here in the Philippines, so I ended up getting the ebook, but I loved it so much I eventually sent out for a copy on Book Depository.

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You Write to Me, I’ll Write to You with Barry Cunningham!

Calling all Filipino writers! Submit a short synopsis and the opening pages of your unpublished chapter book or novel and stand a chance to be shortlisted to receive a review and written feedback by the man who discovered J.K. Rowling, Mr. Barry Cunningham.

‘If it wasn’t for Barry Cunningham, Harry Potter might still be languishing in his cupboard under the stairs… I doubt any of the writers with whom he has worked could be more grateful to him.’ — J.K. Rowling

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Elpidio & Alicia

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I was randomly trawling the MIBF floor (taking my Pokemon for a walk, if you must know) last Sunday, avoiding the more crowded aisles as I already did the bulk of my shopping (ha!) when this lovely book, “Elpidio & Alicia: The Love Letters,” caught my eye at the National Historical Commission booth.

Now I’m trying to be more conscientious about the number of books I add to my shelf (I am, I promise), and it’s rare these days for me to come across a book for the first time and instantly want to buy it, but the more I thumbed through this particular book, the more I knew I wanted it for my collection.

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Review: Bumasa at Lumaya 2

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In celebration of the 33rd National Children’s Book Day, I received a review copy of the second edition of “Bumasa at Lumaya 2: A Sourcebook on Children’s Literature in the Philippines,” edited by Ani Rosa Almario, Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, and Ramon C. Sunico.

I encountered the first “Bumasa at Lumaya” (1994) book in college while I was doing research for my thesis, which was about the process of creating a children’s book.  The Rizal Library had a copy of the book, and while I appreciated the context it provided me of the Philippine children’s book industry, the year was 2005 and I had to rely mainly on articles I could find online for more recent  articles I could use as reference.

This second volume comes as a much needed update on the first, an essential sourcebook for students, teachers, writers, illustrators and other children’s content creators, publishers, and generally anyone who is involved or interested in Philippine children’s books.

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