Book Reviews – Page 60

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

A couple of months ago, I blogged about how much I enjoyed the first two books of The Mysterious Benedict Society, and I recently got to read the third book in the series, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

If you’re not familiar with the “prisoner’s dilemma,” it’s a problem involving two prisoners who are physically separated and offered a deal by their captor to betray their fellow prisoner and get off scot-free. The book opens with Sticky and Kate in one room and Constance and Reynie in another, in a “prisoner’s dilemma” type of test supervised by Rhonda Kazembe, one of Mr. Benedict’s assistants. They had three options:

(A) If both teams remain silent, all of them receive extra kitchen duty for one day.

(B) If both teams betray each other, all of them would receive extra kitchen duty for one week.

(C) If one team chose silence and one team chose betrayal, the traitors would get of free while the other team would be kitchen slaves for a whole week!

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FFP April Book Discussion: The Hunger Games

I’m rarely absent for the Flips Flipping Pages monthly book discussions (I think I’ve only missed three so far), and the April book discussion on The Hunger Games was one of those I didn’t want to miss. You all know I’m a big fan of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series, and I’m one of the thousands of fans eagerly waiting for the final installment, Mockingjay, coming out on August 24.

Peter was assigned to moderate this month, and he did an A-1 job, lining up a paintball tournament a la Hunger Games, which, from the looks of it (check out the cover photo collage), was a highly exciting affair, where Marie’s team triumphed.

The discussion was already well under way by the time I got to R.O.X (Recreational Outdoor eXchange) on Bonifacio High Street, Asia’s biggest outdoor superstore which proved to be a fitting venue for our discussion — HG fans, think of it as your ultimate cornucopia! — and we were glad they very kindly accommodated us for the discussion.

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Meg Cabot again

When my mom arrived from the US early this year, I finally got the two Meg Cabot books I’d mooched from the US, and I finally got around to reading them: Pants on Fire and Airhead.

I’ve been reading Meg Cabot for what seems like ages now, and she’s a steady choice for my chick lit fix, judging by the fact that one layer of my shelf is filled with her books. I have some favorites among her books (All American Girl, Every Boy’s Got One and The Boy Next Door); some I didn’t care for (Heather Wells series, the Princess Diaries after book 5, Nicola and the Viscount, Victoria and the Rogue); some I found horrid (Ready or Not) and some I don’t want to read at all (Mediator series and the 1-800 series), but all in all her repertoire is a good mix for girls of all ages — hip and easy-breezy books perfect for vegging out on the couch on a lazy Saturday afternoon (or procrastinating on a weeknight for that matter!).

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Ilustrado

For the past few weeks, I’ve been raving about Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado” to anyone who will listen! Hahaha, I’ve even managed to convince a bunch of people to go out and get copies (Dianne and Mike and Mike’s uncle, haha — I hope you like it as much I did!) because I couldn’t contain my excitement about it. Here’s my full length review (originally published in Manila Bulletin), and I hope it makes more people want to read it!

“When the author’s life of literature and exile reached its unscheduled terminus that anonymous February morning, he was close to completing the controversial book we’d all been waiting for.”

Thus begins Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado,” winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Award and the Palanca Award, recently launched in the Philippine edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (International release is due this week — I think I’ll get myself a trade paperback of the international edition). I was waiting to board a plane to Davao, and I relished the ominous beginning as I settled down at the airport lounge for the first few chapters of this highly anticipated read.

Filipino writer-in-exile Crispin Salvador’s corpse is found floating in the Hudson River, and his student, Miguel Syjuco (yes, the same name as the author), wants answers. Miguel sets out to piece together Salvador’s life with fragments of his mentor’s body of work, personal history, interviews with friends and relatives, and other sources, telling his own life story along the way.

“Ilustrado” is not your typical Filipino novel, eschewing carabaos in the fields and sunlight the color of mangoes in favor of epistolary-style metafiction that uncannily mirrors Philippine culture, history and politics.

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Re-gifters

As you well know, I’ve introduced a steady supply of graphic novels in my reading diet for the past few months and I’ve been enjoying the regular break from straight text. But because I still haven’t acquired the taste for graphic novels involving multiple volumes (except for Fables, which I’m planning on collecting via the annual deluxe editions), spandex-clad characters or ka-pow effects, I’ve been seeking out one-volume graphic novels to add to my growing collection.

I came across Re-gifters on BookMooch, looked it up and saw that it’s gotten good reviews, and had to have it shipped to my mom in California (because the moocher only sends to the US) and then waited for her to come home before I could get my hands on it. It turned out to be worth all the trouble!

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