Tag: New York

Adventures in the Amazon

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Eva Ibbotson is one of my favorite authors, and I’ve read most of her books, but the two books in this review, A Company of Swans and A Journey to the River Sea (books #136-137 for 2009) are unique, both set largely in the heart of the Amazon.

I’ve always been a fan of Ibbotson’s idyllic pastoral scenery and tree-hugging characters, and I was eager to find out how she would take on a more exotic environment such as the Amazon. I took A Company of Swans with me on the trip to Cebu, while Journey to the River Sea was one of the books that kept me company during my hospital stay (reading wasn’t easy, even after the fever passed, as my left hand got swollen after so many bottles of IV and they had to transfer the IV to my right).

Despite the exotic change of scenery, I was not disappointed with Ibbotson’s forays into the Amazon, as she manages to paint a magical setting that enhances her work’s trademark charm.

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A shiver through the spine (The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold)

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I’d been avoiding reading The Lovely Bones because for a while everyone seemed to be reading it, and it wasn’t really my type of book. I don’t like dramatic fiction, especially domestic dramas. I find them very stressful to read, sometimes even traumatic, like a A Heart of Stone. Sometimes, it’s just nothing spectacular for me, like The Memory Keeper’s Daughter.

The trade paperback I mooched had been languishing in my TBR for over a year already, and I dreaded reading it, but it was taunting me (yes, it all happens in my mind) so I decided it was time to conquer this book.

It surprised me, actually, because as much as I was prepared not to like it, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, which goes to show how going out of your comfort zone once in a while can be rewarding.

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All about Seuss

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Last Saturday, our book club Flips Flipping Pages held our July book discussion on one of my childhood favorites, Dr. Seuss.  I’d been looking forward to this discussion because we haven’t tackled any children’s books yet in a year of book discussions, and I was part moderator of this one, where I took on the discussion of the art of Dr. Seuss.

As a child, I was fortunate enough to attend a school with a principal that had special interest in children’s books, and so our library was well-stocked with the best of them. I remember discovering the Dr. Seuss section when I was in first grade, and I spent many happy hours in the library — well, happy for me, not for the maid who waited for me for hours at the gate, because I didn’t want to go home yet so I evaded her for as long as I can. Hehe.

For this particular discussion, I read three Dr. Seuss books (books #114-116 of 2009): How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss; Seuss, the whole Seuss, and nothing but the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodore Seuss Geisel by Charles D. Cohen; and Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, and Lane Smith.

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Foodie Fiction

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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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They don’t make them like they used to

Romance novels were very big with the girls in my high school, and it was then when I read all the Judith McNaught and Julie Garwood romance novels I could get my hands on. These days, I’ve outgrown the romance novel phase, but I still read them once in a while, for that happily-ever-after fix.
Judith McNaught’s Every Breath You Take (book #77 for 2009) came out in 2005, way after I finished high school, but I didn’t get myself a copy until recently, because it was available on BookMooch.  

The book takes us back to Chicago, back where McNaught’s popular Paradise is set. William Wyatt, grandson of wealthy philanthropist goes missing, and the police suspect foul play, casting suspicion on William’s estranged half-brother, Mitchell Wyatt.

Kate Donovan meets Mitchell Wyatt on the tropical island of Anguilla, and a romantic encounter develops between them. Kate soon finds herself entangled in a web of deception and a high-profile murder, and must struggle to keep herself and her loved ones alive.

I’m not particularly keen on how Judith McNaught (and Julie Garwood) have left behind their old styles and jumped towards writing romance thrillers. I’m a romance purist, because when I read a romance novel, it’s really for the gushy, awwww-inducing sappiness of it and I don’t really appreciate how they’ve complicated it.

Every Breath You Take does have some Judith McNaught trademarks – the momentous one-liners (usually containing the title of the book), the to-die-for leading man, the spirited female, and the good dynamics between the leads, but you have to read through all the high-drama murder to get to the good parts.

There’s another Judith McNaught novel that came out fairly recently but I haven’t read yet: Someone to Watch Over Me. There’s actually a hardcover copy of it waiting in my TBR pile, but I’m not looking forward to it because it’s another romance thriller and the plot sounds more complicated than I’m willing to commit to.

Sigh. They really don’t make romance novels like they used to.

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My copy: mass market paperback, local mooch, upgraded into hardcover with dust jacket, mooched from the US

My rating: 3/5 stars