How much chick could a chick lit...

Look at the cover on the right and tell me that this book ain't chick lit. I myself am having difficulty telling which category this book should belong to. I didn't buy this book because it's chick lit. (I have nothing against chick lit though, but after four Shopaholic novels by Sophie Kinsella, which became more and more unimaginative as the series progressed, I felt it was time to read more "serious" stuff.

I must admit that I wouldn't have bought this one if I hadn't come in early for an appointment and spent the time waiting in Bestsellers in Galleria. (Tip: The Galleria Bestsellers branch is a treasure. Go there.) The cover does get your attention, yes? It does strike me as glamorous. Just look at the details in the ballgowns (and what clean lines and fabulous silhouettes!). But we'll focus on fashion some other day, when I talk about Dana Thomas's Deluxe.

If you're an anglophile like me, you should get your hands on this book. And what better way to get into our mutual love of the English than to read a post-war novel about the British upper middle class. The story revolves around Penelope Wallace, who accidentally meets Charlotte Ferris in the bus. Turns out, Charlotte Ferris is your typical English 20-something aristocrat -- she's spoiled, has an allowance, gets invited to balls almost every night, and has an American boyfriend. Penelope and Charlotte eventually become close friends, with Charlotte introducing Penelope to the fabulous world of the cream of British society.

Nothing much in the way of a plot happens as you read through the book's 350 pages, but I found myself glued to the pages just to know how the upper class conduct themselves in different scenarios. The beauty of Eva Rice's writing is that she lets you in on all the dirt and sparkle in this magical era. Even the rituals of tea in the afternoons becomes significant, as this is often the time when the English make conservations that matter (and also when they trade secrets).

If not for the love angle between Penelope and Charlotte's cousin Harry, this book wouldn't count as chick lit at all. For one, the humor is sublime. It doesn't even employ a sub-plot involving a comedy of errors, much less a heroine that you root for even from the beginning despite her clumsiness and bad luck (e.g., Bridget Jones, Rebecca Bloomwood). With Rice's main character, Penelope Ferris, you get a person with grit. In the end, the book is all about her and not the snotty people that suround her.

Read this book if:

1. You know what crinoline, tafetta, and organza are.
2. You love all things British.
   
3. You like them pretty things.
   

Everybody backlogs

A very good friend was generous enough to get me this pterodactyl. Now, it's boldly guarding my reading backlog.


I've actually made it a goal to go through these four books within the first quarter of this year. First, there's the much publicized and much hyped YOU: On a Diet. It's the kind of book that you don't really read from cover to cover -- you read one chapter, read another book, then go back to the next chapter. A brief scan would tell you that it really is a well-researched book; diagrams, factoids, and illustrations appear on every page. There's even a section on "easy-to-do" recipes you can try to follow yourself. (Ummm, two recipes require Jonagold, Ambrosia, McIntosh, and Rome Beauty apples. WTF! I only know two kinds -- the red and the green.)

Philip Hensher's The Northern Clemency was Amazon's top pick for 2008. While this may be enough reason to buy the book, I must admit that I got it because the story starts in 1974, the year I was born. It did receive mixed reviews though, and its 600 pages is enough to turn most people away. Still, I do like a challenge every now and then.

The World Without Us appealed to my scientific sensibilities. Contrary to what you may think, I was a science major in college. And every once in a while, I feel that I do have to get my geek fix. My friend told me that there's a documentary that used this book's premise, which is about Earth's environmental conditions should the human population suddenly vanish.

Everybody was expecting Michael Grant's Gone to fill the void left by the Harry Potter series. Judging by the lukewarm reception the book has currently received, I doubt that it would be the next publishing phenomenon that it was meant to be. Nevertheless, it does have a very intriguing story line: one day, everyone aged 13 years and older disappear. Think Lord of the Flies, with the characters developing superpowers.

Bookshelves wanted

Don't you just love it when your room's literally littered with books? You get high with the glue.

Kill the kids

Suzanne Collins has balls. After all, it takes balls to write about a bunch of 12- to 18-year-olds kill one another in front of national television. A premise already explored (in somewhat a different form) in books such as the seminal Battle Royale and Stephen King's The Running Man. I haven't seen the film adaptation of Battle Royale, but the comparisons are indeed obvious. (I actually have a bootlegged DVD, but, unfortunately, it doesn't have any subtitles. I did get a mild high seeing twinkie Japanese teenagers shoot each other's brains out. You gotta hand it to the Japanese; in their hands, killing seems so, well, quaint.)

Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games puts a very effective twist on this genre. Imagine a North America devastated by war and divided into 12 districts surrounding the Capitol. Food is scarce, and every one lives in fear of the Capitol. Every year, each district sends two representatives (a boy and a girl) to compete in the hunger games. In district 12, when her 12-year-old sister was chosen, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her place. The objective of the hunger games is simple -- kill or be killed; the winner eventually gets to live a life of luxury and his or her district receives a year's supply of grain.

In Katniss Everdeen, Collins has created one of the most polarizing figures in young adult fiction today. She's not afraid to show brutal force; her hunting skills, which she learned from killing game in the outskirts of her district, are unparalleled; she can charm people; and she can kill. But coming from district 12, she's at a disadvantage. Apparently, in this imagined North America, people from districts 1 to 3 are better fed and prepared for these games. In fact, the last time somebody from district 12 won the hunger games was decades ago. For the locals of district 12, Katniss signed her own death warrant when she volunteered.

I stayed up until 3 am finishing The Hunger Games. True to its being a young adult genre fiction (science fiction/adventure/thriller), each chapter ends in a cliff hanger. There's even a love triangle thrown in. Peeta Mellark, the boy representative from district 12, professes his love to Katniss during the press conference for the games, much to Katniss's dismay knowing that Gale, the boy she left in her own district, would be watching. But what really kept me awake was the killings, and the way these kids kill one another can be quite disturbing. (Imagine: in the hunger games arena, there are no guns.)

If you do get to read just one novel this year, I guess this should be it. Collins writes vivid narratives, making The Hunger Games one of the most compelling reads I've experienced recently. There's a rather predictable moment in the end, but somehow, Collins manages to pull it off. While the author did express her intention of coming up with a trilogy, of which this book is the first, The Hunger Games satisfies on its own.

Read this book if:

1. You like your meat served rare.
2. You want to see spears, arrows, and rocks as murder weapons.
3. You always root for the underdog.
   

I'm all about the books

I've started the year on a good note. Last month, I bought a total of 14 books. So, if this trend actually continues, I'll end the year with 168 books! Hmmm... On second thought, that might not be such a good thing after all (since I only average about 50 books a year).

I actually made a resolution to minimize on my book buying this year. And when two days into the new year and I've already bought my third book, I decided to drop that unrealistic resolution and face the fact that I'm all about the books. And because I really want to get more people to read, I figured that I might as well write about the books I've read recently, hoping that you, my blog visitor, get interested in them. (If you're a good friend who has a history of returning borrowed things, I might even lend them to you.)

R., my dear dear friend, tells me that my tastes in books are a wee bit high brow. Perhaps this perception was true several years ago when I read James Joyce's Ulysees just for the heck of it, or when I picked up Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow at the bookstore because I loved the challenge of its doorstop proportions. If you ask me what I think about those "high brow" books, I would say that, well, they were certainly, ummmm, different.

I guess when you're in your mid-30s, the idea of spending a month just reading one book doesn't have that same appeal as when you were younger and you had all the time in the world. So, I decided to broaden my reading choices. In recent years, I managed to go through all the Gossip Girl novels (I stopped after reading the horrible first novel of the spin-off), read a few Pinoy love stories (which are actually in Taglish), immerse myself in Neil Gaiman's wonderful Sandman graphic novels, and lose myself in several young adult novels.

While I would love to tell you guys about all the books that I will be reading, I think I'll just post reviews of those books that have made a significant impact on myself. This year, I'll begin with Suzanne Collins' brilliant The Hunger Games. Check out the review on my next post.

One final thing, I would really love to hear your comments, my dear blog reader, on all the book reviews that I'll soon make. Of course, only post a comment if:

1. You plan to read the book.
2. You've actually read the book and thinks I got it all wrong.
3. You plan to give me a book to review.