Hi, I'm still alive!

Big Bad Wolf came back to Manila end of February so this has been my haul!

...But then Phantom of the Opera followed and took over my life until they closed last Saturday. I am weak it's my favorite musical of ALL time and I can't get enough (and I'm jealous of friends in Singapore and Malaysia now because they're next).

So safe to say, zero reading was done and I'm just hoping to get back to that.

Hope everyone is well!

If you like lists but couldn't be bothered to look through ALL of them (like me), LIT HUB did the work of assembling a megalist that sums up all the book lists so you only have to look at one than bajillions. It counts how many times a book appears in the selections too (pretty interesting to see patterns) and super helpful all in all https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2018-list/

Oh, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Wait, the new Zafon is out?! SINCE WHEN?

I feel like book Twitter failed to inform me of this.

That's libro numero uno for 2019 (when it shrinks to an acceptable paperback size).

That cover though! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Whadayaknow, I got to finish another before 2018 goes out into the sunset!

This book reminds me strongly of John Dies at the End, it's all very meta in that the very book is a plot device & the author shares the same name as the protagonist. I was intimidated of this book a long time because science isn't my strength but you don't have to be a time traveler to appreciate the story of a guy trying to escape death and fix his life and family ties.

Spectacularly failed reading this year, but there's still next year. In the meantime, this is what a teenage cousin is getting under the tree.

With 4.3 on Goodreads and its sequel nominated on the site's yearend awards, I figured I'm in the minority here and it did occur to me that maybe I didn't read it right. But it draaagged on. Much as this is very heavy on female power (they are nun assassins for crying out loud) I didn't feel invested in any of them. The protag falls into the trap again of the young prodigy wunderkind. And I'm so tired of school settings, classes and bitchy girls.

I went a little nuts.

I should have gotten the paperback size.

Finally. It's miiiiiiiine. Thanks, Kino.

Good evening from Tokyo! The nights are cold and best spent in a bookstore.

I've been trying to make up for my dismal reading the past few months by reading short books. :B

Not like I can say no to this! Mortal Engines is one of the best post-His Dark Materials series I've read and introduced one of my faves ever, aviatrix spy extraordinaire Anna Fang. Philip Reeve wrote stories about her recently (he fanboys the actress playing her in the upcoming movie directed by Peter Jackson a lot, it's so cute) and IT'S GOOD.

I think this is one of those books you shouldn't rush in a day because it's less about the who-what-when and more to do about reflection. About coming to terms with loss, with past ghosts and moving on. It's a book that holds significance in the simplicity of its words and brevity. A book you give away to a friend than something you read in the phone, the better to smell the pages and meditate upon the texts, if that makes sense.

It's funny when a book sneaks up to you sometimes.

Especially as I've been putting this off all year.

If you're looking for the tried and tested Asian family saga with strong matriarchs, sweeping history and heart-rendering drama...this one is not.

That should be fine but, I don't know what it tried to prove either? The red string symbolism was slapped around the narrative. I think the book set out to be ambitious, the usage of multiple 1st persons didn't work in that it fragmented the story and the characters were half-baked, uncompelling.

From the annual bookfair. Is it just me or are new books really pricey nowadays? I used to get around 4 books at their prices. I thought it was the bookstore's way of increasing commission so when the discount is deducted we end up paying for the actual price knowing that people would only buy books during a sale, making the discount superfluous (if that makes sense). But these are Amazon prices (after 20% off) so Idk if that's competitive.

Panned the book, Loooooved the movie

1) Fleshed out portrayals and relationships
2) 🇸🇬! ❤️❤️❤️
3) Refined characters played by passionate actors
4) More: Original scenes that worked (🀄!)
5) Less: Convoluted scenes

I've seen it with my mom and the movie was a special opportunity to bond and cackle. I'm definitely glad I read the book first to see the story's journey from page to screen and how a material can be improved and edited further.

This is a quote that gives me comfort: "Sometimes, just when everything's gone, you find a way. Like after a prairie fire...It seems like the end of the world...But after the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that too, you know. They start over. They find a way."

This is the smaller book I wish I've gotten. So light.

I just looooooove Celeste, full stop. By now she's one of my favorite authors, she spins a good yarn and I'll read any book she writes.

Book, I am into you so far. But I wish you were much lighter (imagine how annoyed I was when I saw a smaller publication a month ago).

How fortuitous. The books I got from last week's sale are both World Fantasy Award nominees this year!

Keiko Furukura is the best at what she does. She is a MARKETING MAVEN and apparently no one, not even her managers, NOTICE THIS. THEY just think she's weird for not having a love life and sticking on a job SHE IS VERY GOOD AT and thinks she should get laid. Doesn't matter if he's a stinking hobo. Her sister weeps that she's hopeless and Keiko has to take cues from literally anyone, even people mudslinging her, on how to Act Normal.

This took ages to finish, no thanks to...smelly pages.

I bought it from the bargain bin ages ago so the pages have yellowed. It's a 2004 edition so it's been around for a while.

I just found out that this was originally a novella and that explains why it feels like, a stretch. I loved the beginning which showed the narrative's potential but it keeps extending and extending until it never seems to end (there are 2 more books that I'm giving up).

The last time I bought a comic book was 20 years ago when I used to follow the X-Men comics with a kind of obsession. I couldn't afford them back then so dad was buying me the comics and our weekend trips always included a stop at the comic store. I miss those days. I got tired eventually, I moved to other hobbies. I still update myself once in a while, because there are characters I'm still invested in. A spoiler had me rushing back.

Looking it up on wiki, I see it's Mandel's debut novel so it's understandable why it's not reached the finesse of Station Eleven and it feels cluttered. It's a bit of a tiring read and I feel the revelation was not...revelatory? BUT I'm not wholly unenticed, because it is a book of road trips and traveling and a woman who always leaves and those were interesting enough to see through the end. This one showed Mandel's promise as a storyteller.

Chizuru Akatani is the daughter of a legendary Japanese musician, but it does nothing for her. Her dad is distant, her mom is dead. And she's a hafu, half-Japanese, half-American. She's violently bullied in school, and next thing we know, someone dies.

That is just the first few chapters.

I'm a sucker for premises like this. This didn't disappoint, I thought it could have used more finesse instead of drawing out some scenes like fish entrails.

This is the only pic I got of the book because the quote struck me as a very 2018 sentiment.

I picked this because I wanted to read one of the 'classics'. I was bored x_x So many boys. But written with such a sensitivity of what is going on their adolescent schoolboy heads before the end of innocence due to the inevitable war & death. I've read the edition with Levithan's afterword about a homosexual subtext that I totally missed BUT plausible.

Elaine did that! I love it (reposted from @apasionflores on Instagram).

Then we have a pop-up library where we can drop books and pick up new ones. No new acquisition from me but I put down A Separate Peace by John Knowles, We are Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Mood Indigo by Boris Vian and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Catherynne Valente. Could have sold these but couldn't be bothered to. The library doubles as a seating space.

Happy Dia del Libro! Where I am, Book Day is celebrated with book fairs, concerts, storytelling, booksigning and...football (it is sponsored by Instituto Cervantes).

1. On top of my head, the Wicked + Divine graphic novels
2. I've stopped playing favorites in a long while, I'm more inclined to list songs, as will be revealed in #4.
3. Lea Salonga's February 2017 concert. It's the latest and therefore the greatest.
4. Adam Levine's "Lost Stars" and I'm a sucker for Bruno Mars' "Finesse" this late. Any Paramore song circa-2000. Daft Punk's "One More Time".

Loved this one. Thanks @Joscho! #ManicMonday

What moves one to pick a Shamsie book? Masochism. Pure and simple.

I kid, it's because of her flourishing narratives that masterfully travels generations, even centuries. Because her characters are compelling. Because you gotta know what happens. Because like it or not, you kind of hope she rewrites history to a happy ending which of course, she does not.

But certainly read it for Viv, Qayyum, Najeeb and certainly for Diwa.

1. Once in a while I like escaping to the countryside but the city will always call me back.
2. Not while working usually, but on roadtrips and passing Saturday afternoons, hell yes.
3. Because thrillers can be Literary Fiction too!
4. I have never understood the hate. By all means skip it. More for us!
5. None. Funnily I can't think of a guy I'd prefer...

Thanks @readherwriteher! #ThisOrThat

Bought this from the local Big Bad Wolf Sale expecting to read about real life stories and experiences...which there are, but in short snippets. What we have here instead are topics about hair, aging, marriage, writer feuds, writer issues, the cultural revolution, clothes and flowers, from the perspective of Chinese women. Which is fine, but I thought they were done on a very surface level. Regretably forgettable.

This is a book that deserves to be discussed more.

Short story collections bog me, because they're not all good and you always have to build up that investment in every story. But this book is the exception. I've never read a collection where I want ALL stories to be novels. The Filipino immigrant experience is a uniting theme, because there's a story to be mined in displacement and dreams. Wonderfully complex and (hate this word) unputdownable.

Squeeing about this book series again because:
1) Dat gorgeous edition!
2) They are starting to cast the tv series! (Dafne Keen from Logan as Lyra! And...Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby?!? Age concerns but LMM is amazing AND a huge HDM fan so...)
3) I've been sleeping all week after work and haven't done any new reading. About to change soon for sure.

WELL THERE'S THIS AT LEAST. Bless you, Times. (They also had a 20% Fiction sale in February and my sister and I got to enjoy it on the last day).

My heart screams yes but my wallet weeps no (it sells at an equivalent of 24 USD, 5 dollars more expensive than the HARDBOUND publication available back home.) I want this edition so badly though. Oh well, I still have a few days...

SO FAR I have touched all the books I want to buy and then proceeded to cry because Singapore Dollars, you're so highhhhhh.

I wasn't very impressed of the hauls I've been sort of stalking via social media and wasn't expecting to get more than three. But am pleased to be surprised! I've been eyeing that China Mieville book since last year and I'm elated to get it 3x cheaper. I enjoyed Station Eleven so I'm hoping these other St John Mandels are promising. Burial Rites was a book rec, I trust Jo Walton's taste in books & the Chinese Women essay book sounds interesting.

BIG BAD WOLF!

Indeed, Stylist, well played.

I had a hard time going back to this book in between pauses, I always have to read back to figure out what's going on. Things obviously got more interesting when the twist was revealed but along with it a plethora of themes that I wasn't prepared to deal with. I still look at this book and go, "What are you, really??" Ultimately the ending fixes that which was nice and serene. It improved my thoughts of the book 50%.

Will be back here in exactly one month! The last time I was in Singapore, I didn't get to buy any books because the paper backs were selling at our hardbound prices. That said, there were a couple of books I've seen there that never got here so. I think I'll allow myself one or two books. Maybe.

*wrings hands* The thing is, I can't stand these people. I know because these were people I grew up with (as in school or extended families). I can't understand how they are so out of touch of the world. It was a bit of a challenge going into the book, but sometimes I recognize a character trait that's relatable (stinginess of the Chinese) and the ending actually had a potential story that would've been tons better if it was the main plot.

Such an irresistible blurb (edited to fit):

In Moshi Moshi, Yoshie‘s much-loved musician father has died in a suicide pact with an unknown woman. It is only when Yoshie and her mother move to Shimokitazawa that they can finally start to put their painful past behind them. However, Yoshie is haunted by nightmares in which her father is looking for the phone he left behind on the day he died, or on which she is trying―unsuccessfully―to call him.

2018 haul so far...

May drastically change by February.

OMG IT'S COMING HERE, @BATSY!

In other news, I'm doomed.

A highlight of my 2017 is having traveled outside the country and getting to visit all these wonderful bookstores. I didn't necessarily buy, but I enjoyed seeing books (familiar & strange) in different publications, arranged in different shelves. It's a new way of seeing stories, w/c is exciting. In itself, book shopping/browsing is an adventure on its own. That's my wish for everyone for 2018. Here's to uncovering more stories, wherever you are!

I was sort of hoping they'd get someone like Charlotte Riley but okay! I'm in.

Eleanor Oliphant is that book that can make you laugh while punching you straight in the gut but leave you wanting for more. The feeling of being outcasted is so relatable and for a while I was that girl who stood apart and didn't care what other people thought. But Eleanor's development doesn't stop there. The book is entertaining, beguiling, heartwarming and ultimately redeeming. It'll make an excellent movie. A fine way to end 2017.

"Social interaction, it appeared, was surprisingly expensive."

I love Eleanor's hyperawareness.

@ReadingOver50, it was you! Hello from someone 11,855 km away! (I googled). Thanks so much for going through the trouble! What's interesting about these books for me is, I know them (esp CRA, as Kwan spent some time in the country promoting his trilogy) and they are so popular that I don't take a second look. But now they're in my hands, I will get cracking and I think it will be fun. (1/2) #WinterSolsticeBookExchange #SecretSantaGoesPostal