Bookmarked! – Page 170 – Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue

Bee Season

sb_pressrel-copy Last weekend I caught one of the last shows of the 2nd run of the local production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the RCBC theater (Atlantis Productions).

It’s a short musical comedy revolving around a spelling bee, featuring contestants Chip Tolentino, Leaf Coneybear, Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, Olive Ostrovsky, Marcy Park, and William Barfee, some guest spellers from the audience, and the adults Rona Lisa Peretti, Vice Principal Panch, and comfort counselor Mitch Mahoney

While Avenue Q is still my favorite, Spelling Bee was hilarious too and we were laughing our heads off the whole time. I really loved Leaf Coneybear’s trance-like spelling of names of South American rodents and William Barfee’s magic foot. The girl characters weren’t as funny though, and sometimes even annoying.

The reason I mention this musical is because it reminded me of the book Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, which I read last year, and realized I haven’t reviewed it here yet.

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What’s on your desk Wednesday

I’ve been tagged twice for What’s on your desk Wednesday — once by Vanessa last month and by Peter last week so I am finally doing it tonight, because I’m really swamped and don’t have the luxury of time to finish the next review I am in the middle of composing (or the twelve more I have to write)…

So here goes!

What’s on your desk Wednesday? is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Sassy Brit of Alternative-Read.com, involving taking a photo of your desk or where you stack your books/TBR pile as it is (and swear no tidying!) and then blogging about it (click on the link to Sassy Brit for full mechanics).

I’ve been hedging because my desk is a mess, especially right now because I’m working on some book illustrations and have virtually no time to tidy up or to write as many reviews as I normally do and read on top of all that too.

(Warning to those viewing from the home page: The photo is behind the cut because it’s kind of scary, haha.

Sure you’re up to it? Well then take a deep breath, and click on the MORE button, but don’t blame me — the instructions say no tidying!)

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the girl who played go

I was rummaging in the bargain bin at Book Sale when a jacketless hardcover book caught my eye — creamy ochre with a red spine. The title, the girl who played go by Shan Sa (book # 111 of 2009, #18 for the FFP Diversity Challenge) sounded interesting, and as the summary was lost to the missing dust jacket, I decided to get it anyway, because it was only P50 (around $1).

I knew that Go is the Chinese strategy game comparable to chess (or checkers), and because I’ve read some novels that revolve around chess, such as The Eight by Katherine Neville and The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, I was quite intrigued by this book.

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In Remembrance of Botong

Yesterday This week, I went on a media tour to Angono, Rizal, touted to be the “Art Capital of the Philippines.”

Angono has produced two National Artists, namely Carlos “Botong” Francisco (for visual art) and Lucio San Pedro (for music), and several well-known artists such as Nemiranda, the Blanco family of painters, and Perdigon. In recent years, younger generations of artists have emerged in Angono and art galleries and studios are a familiar sight in this municipality.

The subject of our tour was Angono’s most famous son, Botong Francisco, best known for his sprawling murals (some up to 200 feet!) that are a familiar sight to Filipinos as a lot of them are displayed in prominent institutions. His masterpieces, which depict historical scenes and Filipino communities, include the Malacañang mural “Fiesta”, “Blood Compact” (Yuchengco Museum / RCBC Building), “First Mass at Limasawa” (National Museum), “The Martyrdom of Rizal” (Fort Santiago), and “Stations of the Cross” (Far Eastern University).

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Foodie Fiction

choco

I like reading novels about food — the foodie in me relishes reading about food almost as much as feasting on the real thing. Sometimes the words are even better, because they always taste good in the imagination, as opposed to a dish that makes your mouth water as you read the menu but falls flat when you take the first bite.

This weekend, by chance, I read two foodie novels: The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris, and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (books # 111 and 112 of 2009, and LWFC for the Diversity Challenge- Latin American).

The two novels are no strangers to me — The Lollipop Shoes is the sequel to Chocolat, which I read last year, and Like Water for Chocolate is a book I first read back in sophomore year in high school, when we discussed Latin American literature.

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