The Pagan series

After several days of interrupted reading, I finally finished Pagan in Exile by Catherine Jinks (Book #45 for 2009).

The Pagan books have been in my wishlist for some time now, and I was surprised to come across Pagan’s Crusade (book 1) at Book Sale last year. Cecille got me Pagan in Exile for Christmas.

After two books in the series, I still pretty much don’t get it. The past few days have been busy for me, but if Pagan in Exile was interesting enough, I’d have finished it the first day.

I was really interested in the series as I have never read any Templar knight novels before, but I had several problems with this series.

First, I really hate it when books do not provide enough context into the central ideas that form the backbone of the story. This series, for instance, is set some time during the Crusades, but assumes the reader knows all about the Crusades.

I blanch at books like this, which plunge you right into a foreign concept, because it’s difficult to get into the story and even more difficult to imagine it. Style-wise, it’s okay if concepts are explained along the way, e.g. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, which takes some getting used to but makes it all worth it in the end. But if the author simply expects you to make conjectures out of the meager information provided, it’s just plain annoying.

Second, Pagan, the protagonist sticks out like a sore thumb in this series. He is supposed to be a wisecracking teener who serves as a squire for a Templar knight. Annoying wisecracks notwithstanding, he doesn’t sound like someone from the period in which the book is set. However vague the time period is, I’m sure they weren’t quipping Wham! or hups-a-daisy! or God, how I hate monasteries in the Crusades.

Yawn, yawn. What a bore. Nothing to look at. Nothing to eat. Not much of a road, this one. A real goat track, hemmed in by scrubby forest: the occasional oak, lots of sweet chestnuts, wild thyme, campions and other things I don’t recognize. Little brown birds. Twit, twit, twit. Enough to drive you crazy.

Pagan’s thought process and sarcasm are disjointed against the historical setting. I understand that the character is wisecracking, but I’m sure that with the proper research, the author could have prevented Pagan from being an anachronism in his own title series. It just takes away the credibility of his character.

Speaking of speech, the series contains a lot of cuss words (not to mention sexual content) that makes it inappropriate for young readers.

Finally, the storyline is frustrating. After two books, I felt as if I’d been led around in circles. There is no clear plot developmen, no goals for the protagonists to achieve, no rising action or climax, and the books just make you plod on and on and on.

It hits another of my pet peeves — I get really annoyed when I don’t know what the author is driving at. I have hundreds of books waiting to be read and I devote time to your book, the least you can do is to let me know that there is a point to reading it.

I tried to like this series, but come on, throw me a bone here…

I don’t think I’ll read the rest of the series.

***
My copies: Pagan’s Crusade, trade paperback, from Book Sale (~P80); Pagan in Exile, trade paperback, from Cecille — both mooched already.

My rating: Pagan’s Crusade 2/5 stars; Pagan in Exile 2/5 stars; Pagan series 2/5 stars

ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal (2nd time around)

Yesterday, I watched Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal with my best friend, my sister, and fellow Flippers Czar, Marie, MayD, and Ihop (with Mr. Ihop and friend) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

ZZZ 2009 poster (from http://carverhouse.blogspot.com)

Because I have readers outside of the Philippines, I need to explain: Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah is a campy, original Filipino graphic novel by Carlo Vergara. It’s about a gay parlorista (hairdresser/ beauty specialist) whose alter ego is the busty, bodacious FEMALE superhero Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah.

The graphic novel

Last July, the Flippers had a Zsa Zsa book discussion and we were lucky enough to have Carlo Vergara on hand to listen to our discussion and answer our questions about the book (and sign autographs too!). With him was Tuxqs Rutaquio, who plays the lead, Ada, in the musical.


CarVer and Tuxqs at the FFP discussion

Flippers take on ZsaZsa!

Yesterday was actually the second time I watched the musical, as I watched it on its second run at the PETA theater nearly three years ago, before I even read the book, and I have to say it was one of the best things I’ve ever watched onstage. The theater was small and the stage was in the center, and I really enjoyed watching it up close.

So I didn’t mind watching it a second time, although turned out to be a different experience for me.

A few boos: we had reserved P600 seats, only to find out when we claimed the tickets that our reserved seats had been sold to some other people (they refunded P100) and we had seats at the far end of the theater, along the side, and the most annoying of them all: right next to the exit door so all the latecomers had to pass in front of us. Granted, it was a night of horrendous traffic (Eheads concert at MOA), but theater policy should limit late entrance to the intermission, or else they need to devise a way to let the people in without disturbing any of the seated audience who came on time to watch the show.

And my beef: the theater’s audio was really bad. There were times when it was too loud (the earsplitting scene when Ada and Didi were screaming, thinking the house was getting attacked by stone-throwers) and times when the mics were crackly or picked up feedback. But most of the time, especially for the songs layered with background music and solos performed upstage — we couldn’t make out the solos. The play is a musical, they should have made sure everyone could hear it properly — isn’t that a theater rule, to make sure “the deaf old lady in the back row” could hear everything clearly?

The show was still enjoyable despite the aforementioned logistical and technical flaws, if only because of the show’s entertainment value. The camaraderie between Ada and Didi (played by Tuxqs Rutaquio and Joey Paras) was as fascinating as I remembered it, and Eula Valdez as Zsa Zsa was quite possibly even more stellar this time around. I also love that they updated the script and it was still laugh-out-loud funny (at least for what dialogue made it to our far end of the theater), but I really missed the overall WOW experience I had first time I watched it.


Oh, and I should have brought my copy of the book for a third autograph!

***
My copy: paperback (books I & II combined), bought at PETA run, autographed twice by CarVer (first at the PETA run, second at the FFP reading)

My rating: book 5/5 stars; musical – PETA run 5/5 stars; 2009 run 3.5/5 stars

Lenten Special: Tuna Melt

I’ve been in the middle of a book for some days now (Pagan in Exile), and admittedly, I’ve been losing interest in it. So tonight I decided to “cleanse the palate” with a cookbook, my first cookbook review for the year :)
Book #44 for 2009: Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make you Melt by Marlena Spieler, from one of my favorite publishers, Chronicle Books. This book caught my eye at the National Bookstore Book-sak Presyo sale last December at Market! Market! because I looooove cheese. All sorts of cheese (no, processed cheese isn’t counted), and the stinkier, the better.
Because it’s Lent, I decided to try the recipe for spiced up tuna melt (Tuna Melt with Spanish Flavors), and it’s great because I had all the ingredients — tuna, Monterey Jack cheese, bell peppers (that I roasted in the oven toaster), paprika, half an onion, mayo, olive oil, and some salt and pepper to taste.

Aside from the long time it took me to peel the bell pepper (note: next time, canned pimientos!), it was pretty easy, just like making normal tuna spread except with more ingredients. I had fun using the mezzaluna knife (a la Nigella) that my mom bought at Crate and Barrel (comes with its own chopping board!) for the fine chopping.

And then I grilled the sandwich (brushed with olive oil on the surface) on a non-stick pan, using a clean saucer to weigh down the bread (my battery was conking out, so no photo of the saucer).

When the bread was nicely browned, I sliced it down the middle and yum — cheese came oozing out! :) It was yummy — the paprika and the bell peppers gave the tuna spread some zip, and some smokiness. The Monterey jack was nicely melted; I got cheesy strings stretching out as I bit into the sandwich. Sigh… it was perfect!

My yummy tuna melt!

My goal is to try out all the recipes in this book within my lifetime, and maybe invent some of my own. I need to collect more cheese “specimens” (not a wide variety available in this country, and expensive, too!) to experiment with the different combinations of grilled cheese sandwiches in the book… Meanwhile, just flipping through the pages makes my mouth water.

I think I’ll go make another tuna melt! :D

***

My copy: paperback, bought for P50

My rating: book 5/5 stars, tuna melt 5/5 stars

Blast from the Past (Picture book roundup #3)

There are some books that stand out in my childhood memories, and I am on a crusade to find them all again to add to my collection. It hasn’t been easy, as some of them have been out of print for a while now, so I scour Book Sale and BookMooch for copies.
Recently I was able to find some of them, and I thought I’d share them here (Books 41-43 for 2009).First up is Tubby and the Lantern by Al Perkins, illustrated by Rowland Wilson. For a long time I couldn’t remember the title of this book, I just knew we read it in Think & Try (my pre-school) days, during story time and it was shown on Batibot, and that there was a Chinese boy and an elephant.
I mooched a copy from the US, and had it sent to my my mom when she was in the States as the user wasn’t sending international. Finally it came in one of the balikbayan boxes my mom sent home.

Tubby and the Lantern is about the friendship of a Chinese boy named Ah Mee and a small elephant named Tubby. It’s set in a Chinese, lantern-making town, where Ah Mee’s parents are the best lantern makers. On Ah Mee’s birthday, Tubby decides to surprise Ah Mee by making him a giant lantern, which proves disastrous as he is carried into the air and Ah Mee has to save him.

I remember back in pre-school, we had a lantern-making session after reading the book, just like Ah Mee and Tubby made them. Except the candles, of course!

Even more than 20 years later, I still love the story and the cheery illustrations. The illustrator, Rowland B. Wilson, used to work for Playboy, and also worked on animated films like Disney’s Hercules, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Little Mermaid, and Tarzan, as well as Don Bluth’s Thumbelina. He also worked on the series Schoolhouse Rock.

(Tubby and the Lantern photo by Glenn Mullaly)

The next book is also a throwback to my kindergarten days — Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman (illus. by Eulalie). I still don’t have a copy of this book, but I found a modernized version by Little Golden Books, entitled The Boy and the Tigers (by Helen Bannerman, illus. by Valeria Petrone).

Little Black Sambo is the bizarre story of a boy who walks into a jungle (haha, a leisurely stroll, with an umbrella to boot!) and runs into a pack of tigers, who make him give up his clothes, shoes, and even his umbrella in exchange for his life. The tigers end up fighting over Little Black Sambo’s belongings and they spin round and round chasing each other until they melt into a puddle of butter and Little Black Sambo’s father uses the butter to make pancakes for the family! Fascinating stuff, really!

I remember reading this over and over with morbid interest when I was a kid; I even remember dressing up in my raincoat and umbrella so I could role-play Little Black Sambo and fend off the fierce tigers. So I was so disappointed with the new edition, because it was sanitized and cutesy-fied so it’s less offensive and more lovable. The original book was criticized for being racist, but I grew up reading the book and I was oblivious to the racism, I think it was more anti-tiger than anything else, hehe.

In the new edition, Little Black Sambo becomes a hindu boy named Rajani and the tigers are so cute they’re not even scary. The illustrations are great, but they obviously chose the style to bowdlerize the new edition.

Arrgh!!! I still want a copy of Little Black Sambo.

Finally, my last book for the roundup is Many Moons by James Thurber, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It won a Caldecott Medal in 1943.
I actually have two copies of this book, a new paperback edition that I found at the Book Sale Warehouse and an old hardbound library discount that I found at the Book Sale in Cagayan de Oro (P35!), but in case you’re wondering, I’m not letting either one go.

I remember this was the final story in our CRL workbook in Grade 3 (i think…) and it’s about Princess Lenore, the princess who asks for the moon, and the court jester (who outwits the Lord Chamberlain, the palace wizard, and the mathematician) who gets the moon for her.

It’s a great fairy tale, and Louis Slobodkin’s swirly illustrations are the perfect touch.

I am still looking for a copy of Tikki Tikki Tembo, Robert the Rose Horse, and Are You My Mother? I hope I can find them soon :)

***

My copies: Tubby and the Lantern, hardcover; The Boy and the Tigers, hardcover; Many Moons, paperback / hardcover

My rating: Tubby and the Lantern, 5/5 stars; The Boy and the Tigers, 2/5 stars; Many Moons, paperback / hardcover 5/5 stars

Squee for Book Three!

I have always thought The 39 Clues was a brilliant marketing coup on the part of Scholastic, but as I closed the cover on my copy of the third installment in the series (I was reading it for an article for Manila Bulletin, which comes out on Saturday), The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis (Book #40 for 2009), I think the it would be safe to say that it has gotten into its groove. 

I’m not sure which factors in more, if it’s Lerangis’ writing that makes the difference (he did ghost-write for my favorite mystery series, The Three Investigators) or if the mechanisms set in place by the first two books were simply put in motion, but I honestly loved The Sword Thief more than I did the first two books (I rated them both 4/5 stars, and not so much for the story but for the reading experience).

For the first two books, as action-packed as they were, I felt a certain detachment towards the text, like I was an impartial witness to the action unfolding throughout the pages. Book 3 fits in with the rest of the series (with no less than Nick and Norah author David Levithan directing the editorial team), with the trademark 39 Clues twisty chase (suspension of disbelief is a given, think National Treasure or Da Vinci Code) but to my surprise, The Sword Thief captured what I felt was lacking in the series: an added depth to the characters, and interesting dynamics between the Cahill relatives, which comes in at an opportune moment, because the cat-and-mouse, left-and-right sabotage can get pretty old after a while.

I guess Lerangis’ writing does deserve to be singled out, as he manages to add more introspection to the characters and keep up with the line of action — 20 pages under the last book, at that — and I feel that this book captured the spirit of 39 Clues most succintly.

I think it can only get better from here on, and I can’t wait for Book 4, Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson, which is out in June. Should be good, set in classic treasure hunt wonderland: Egypt!

That reminds me, I should input the cards onto my account soon and get a move on with the clues in the online game… Arrgh, the problem is the game site is sooo addictive and I can’t limit myself to an hour playing…. And I also need to get an expansion card pack soon before the new set (for the next books) is released. Ohhh, to be a kid again!

P.S. If there are any other Cahills out there, I’m a Lucian.

***
My copy: hardcover (the series is in hardcover)

My rating: 5/5 stars