Book Reviews – Page 31

Julius Chancer

A couple of years ago, I discovered Julius Chancer completely by chance at the Manila International Book Fair at a publisher’s rep booth, and being a Tintin fan, I was instantly attracted to the cover art. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was an omnibus of “The Rainbow Orchid” adventure, and I knew I wouldn’t find it in the bookstores — I felt it was too good to pass up. I inquired about the book and they told me it wasn’t for sale, and I wheedled and wheedled until they finally agreed to sell it to me (It wasn’t cheap. Haha). I’d been meaning to read it, but with all the moving around my books have been doing in the past couple of years, it got lost in the stacks and only resurfaced as I was packing some books for storage after last year’s monsoon.

Written and illustrated by Garen Ewing and published by Egmont (incidentally, also the publisher of Tintin), The Complete Rainbow Orchid won the Young People’s Comic Award at the 2013 British Comic Awards.

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The Mango Bride

I’ve always wanted to meet Marivi Soliven, because years and years ago (let’s not count anymore), I designed the cover of her book, “Spooky Mo,” an interesting collection of sinister short stories featuring the seven deadly sins and women who get their revenge on the men who provoke them. I remember how, when I got that particular manuscript from the publisher, I meant to pore over a few stories to get a feel of the text, and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting!

Meeting Marivi was no doubt long overdue, and I was glad the opportunity presented itself with the launch of her novel, “The Mango Bride” last year at National Book Store.

Prior to its publication by NAL (New American Library) Accent this year, “The Mango Bride” won the Grand Prize for Novel in English at the 2011 Carlos Palanca Awards for literature. It portrays the story of two women, Amparo Guerrero and Beverly Obejas, who grew up with very different backgrounds in Manila before seeking new life in America.

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Cranky Bear, Itchy Bear, Hungry Bear

Here’s a new picture book series I adore: The Very Cranky Bear collection written and illustrated by Nick Bland, which includes the books “The Very Cranky Bear,” “The Very Itchy Bear” and “The Very Hungry Bear.” I received copies of the latter two from Scholastic during our annual bookish dinner last year, which prompted me to download the Cranky Bear app on my iPad.

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Return to Enderverse

(Still waiting for ReaderCon pictures for my ReaderCon post, so here’s a roundup of some Ender Saga books in the meantime).

After ReaderCon and dinner last Saturday, I went to watch Ender’s Game on IMAX with Flipper friends Joko, Jeeves, Vlad, Art and Mike. I’d been looking forward to watching it ever since it was announced, and while it was a spectacular visual feast, I think I’d have enjoyed it more if I had not read the books. I just felt it was rushed, trying to compress everything in one film, and it glossed over key moments in Battle School which showed how Ender rose through the ranks and gradually earned the respect of his peers.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card was the best book I read in 2012 – I brought it along on a trip to Sagada, started reading (with a book light!) it in the van as everyone started drifting off to sleep, and I literally could not put it down, zigzags and all. I distinctly remember a moment of panic: the van hit a rut and I lurched forward, knocking off my book lamp somewhere on the floor. Everyone else was asleep and the space was too cramped for me to go crawling around for the book light, so I was euphoric when, minutes later, the van climbed uphill and the book light came rolling back towards me (Success! And yes, a van making its way through a zigzag road poses no impediment to my reading).

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Filipino Fright

With the two long weekends coming up, I’ve been lining up my Halloween reads to count down to the end of this ~~frightful~~ month, when I can finally read without interruptions.

I’ll start you off with a couple new offerings that come right in time for the season, Tahanan Books’ not-so-scary Ma-Me-Mi-Mumu! by Jomike Tejido, and All & Sundry’s hair-raising Kaba: 50 Maikling Kuwento ng Kababalaghan at Katatakutan!!! by Yvette Tan, illustrated by Nelz Yumul.

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