One thing leads to another

If it weren't for the wonderful music in this:


I wouldn't have read and somehow "liked" this:


Still, I'm glad I got inspired to finally read this:

A very peculiar read

Judging by its cover, you'd think that Ransom Riggs's debut novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, is a horror story. Unfortunately, it's not, but it's something much more wonderful. In a way, it's a coming-of-age book filled with mystery, suspense, and the occasional episodes of creepiness. And, I believe it can be a cross-over novel -- a book that can be enjoyed by both young adults and adults.

As a child, Jacob, the main character, has long been fascinated by the old photographs that his grandfather keeps. The photographs are by and large eccentric -- a girl seemingly hovering in the air, a scrawny boy apparently lifting a huge boulder, a girl staring at her reflection on a pond, with the reflected image consisting of two girls, a creepy pair of girls with their backs turned to the camera, a girl holding a globe of light in her hands.

The black and white photographs lend an air of mystery to the story. Of course, we all know that they're fake, yet somehow, there's a gothic feel to them. Here are some examples.


By the time Jacob is in his teenage years, his fascination for the photographs and the children on them has waned. But then his grandfather dies violently of mysterious causes. Jacob decides to go to the Welsh island where his grandfather's orphanage once stood, with the hope of finding the reason for his death.

Things turn more mysterious when Jacob reaches the island and finds out that the orphanage, which was run by Miss Peregrine, was bombed during World War II and with all of its residents killed. So how can it be that his grandfather failed to mention this very important detail? How did his grandfather survive the bombing? Adding another layer of mystery to all these, Jacob makes a startling discovery -- the children shown in his grandfather's photographs are alive! And they do have peculiar traits!

I don't want to write any more details. You just have to get your hands on this one, dear reader. It's one of the most pleasantly surprising reads I've experienced this year. What's more, there can be a sequel!

But I do would like to say that, production-wise, this is a very beautiful book. The vintage photographs appearing in the novel are real pictures that Riggs have gathered or have requested permission to reuse. The pictures effortlessly weave into the story, making the reader richer and more satisfying. Here are two of my favorite pictures:



Read this book if:

1. You love cross-over novels.
2. You like books with pictures. Who doesn't, no?
3. You think you're a peculiar child yourself.

More good sci-fi/fantasy

It's a good year in reading science fiction and fantasy novels for KyusiReader. And one of these is China Miéville's outstanding steampunk novel, Perdido Street Station, which managed to grab a string of awards including the British Fantasy Society's August Derleth Award in 2000 and the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2001. Naturally, my expectations were quite high; thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.

The first part of Perdido Street Station innocuous enough. Miéville sets up the city of New Crobuzon in wonderful detail. It's a city unlike any other. The industrial metropolis is populated by individuals whose traits can only be described as otherworldly. Frog-like individuals called vodyanoi can manipulate water into different shapes. Kephri, those with the head of an insect and the body of a human female, make sculptures using their spit. There are cactacae whose bodies are half human and half cacti. Animal and mechanical parts have been painfully grafted into the bodies of some humans, thus labelling them as the remade.

In the first few chapters, we meet one Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a scientist with a lowly reputation. One day, Isaac is visited by a garuda, an esoteric individual that is half man and half bird. The garuda has informed Isaac that his wings had been cut off, and that he is looking to Isaac to help him take flight again. Isaac accepts and immerses himself into research. He studies the mechanics of flight, finds out more about the garuda community, and acquires winged organisms. One of these is a beautiful caterpillar who only survives by taking a hallucinogenic drug called dreamshit.

The second part of the novel is where things get more interesting. The novel effortlessly becomes a work of horror, suspense, and adventure. The caterpillar has morphed into a pupa, which in turn emerges as a slake-moth. It then manages to find four of its siblings, wreaking havoc on the citizens of New Crobuzon. It turns out that slake-moths can suck the dreams and consciousness of a person; what's left after the "psychic carnage" is a living body devoid of thought -- a husk. The existence of the slake-moths has also brought a plague of nightmares to the city. Isaac, after learning all these, takes it upon himself to hunt for these slake-moths. Of course, he enlists the help of some of his friends, the garuda, and his kephri girlfriend.

If the first part of the novel is brilliantly mesmerizing, with the descriptions of New Crobuzon and its inhabitants, the second part is thrilling and propels the reader to finish Miéville's 700-page doorstop of a novel. Trust me, you would wish for another 700 pages after reading the last page. Perdido Street Station is that satisfying. Good thing that this novel is just the first of Miéville's Bas-Lag novels; it's followed by The Scar and The Iron Council.

After reading Perdido Street Station, China Miéville immediately became one of my favorite authors. I'm currently reading The Scar and I'm happy to report that it's just as good as Perdido Street Station. And that's why I'm on a frenzy collecting Miéville's fiction.


I just have a few more novels to go before everything's complete. I think I'm missing his short story collection and his young adult novel. I'm looking forward to the hunt. (No massmarket paperbacks for me.) I've also managed to buy a signed first edition at a secondhand bookstore, which I got for a steal thanks to a book club friend. (Thanks, Fredda!)


Read Perdido Street Station if:

1. You like steampunk.
2. You're prepared to experience a hallucinogenic reading high.
3. You want to know how dreamshit works.
   

Maybe some people liked this

Killing time in bookstores usually works for me. However, there are times when I regret ever having stepped in a bookstore one day and going home with a book that I have no idea why I bought at all. And because it's bookstore sale season once again here in Manila, the frequency of my bookstore trips has increased. Most of the time, I leave with a smile on my face, happy to take the books home. Very rarely do I end up buying a book that I would like to fling violently across the room after finishing it. Unfortunately, Gayle Forman's novel, If I Stay, is one such book.

The blurb on the front cover should have served as warning of some sorts. But hey, I liked Twilight (just the first book), so I figured I might as well give this a shot. Plus it's short, so investment on time is practically nil. I figured I'd finish it in two hours, tops. But boy oh boy would I want to have those precious hours back!

I guess my apparent distaste for If I Stay is now very much apparent. The plot is dilute and derivative. Mia, a musically inclined teenager, loses her parents and her younger brother in a freak car accident. She's in a coma herself, after suffering brain contusions, a pierced lung, broken ribs, and what-have-yous. Mia sees her still body in the hospital surrounded by family and friends, and begins to reminisce about significant parts of her life.

Forman adds layer upon layer of cheese to the story. In If I Stay, the circumstances in Mia's life are just too uncomfortably fine. Mia's parents are ex-hippies, so they're very "cool." Mia, a gifted cellist, has a boyfriend who's in a rock band. (I just shudder at the cliché.) Her relationship with her very precocious younger brother is never troublesome at all. There's an attempt to provide conflict when Mia decides to audition for Juilliard. If she does get accepted, she will have to leave her boyfriend and family in Oregon behind. But this sort of conflict is something we've all read before. We just know that it'll work out eventually, no?

It is in remembering these scenes that helps Mia to come to a decision -- whether to continue living, albeit an orphan, or to permanently leave her body and join her parents and younger brother in the afterlife. Sadly, the decision is quite predictable. You'll get to know it at the part where her boyfriend is with her comatose body in the ICU, silently holding her hand. How unimaginative is that?

Read this book if:

1. You like clichés.
2. You believe in the power of love (whatever, peanut butter).
3. Oh, don't bother.

What to expect in a book club (part 1)

Me, at a book club meeting
(But where's the book?)

1. Some people come for the food. If you're moderating, pick a good restaurant. You'll get great feedback.
2. Members will "defend" their favorite books up for discussion. It's almost like a war really. When this happens, I just sit back and stuff myself silly.
3. I can fart when there's a heated debate. No one will notice.
4. Remember the "plus one" rule. When you say 2 pm, people would show up at 3.
5. Some people write notes on Post-Its and attach them on the pages of the book. The book appears literally bursting with these little pieces of paper. I find it best to seat myself away from them as far as possible.
6. If the discussion is in a restaurant, paying for the bill is a living hell. Too much mathematics going on just to settle it. Tell the waiter beforehand to have your order listed separately. You'll appear aloof, yes, but you'll save yourself the hassle.
7. After the discussion, people would stay and talk for a few minutes in little groups. It can be quite noisy. (Of course, they're just waiting for someone to suggest where to have dinner.)
8. Those who say that they're "Maybe Attending" will NOT come.
9. Those who say that they're "Attending" will PROBABLY come.
10. Saying that you can't attend because you haven't read the book is lame. Trust me, you can pull it off. Google is your friend.
    

Let's talk about science

A lot of you probably think that I was a Literature major back in college. Wrong. I actually have a science background, as I was a Biology major. Nevertheless, my science background did not stop me from reading many genres -- from chick lit to fantasy. Name a genre, I probably have read books on it.

Having this kind of education makes me wonder why a lot of people seem to have an aversion for the sciences. Science is interesting and, yes, it can be FUN. It's a good thing that there are a lot of good non-fiction science books out now. And one of the best in my opinion is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

ASHONE isn't a true blue science book though, as it's more of a history book and short biographies than anything. Plus, if you've been exposed to other non-fiction books in science with a specific subject and theme, you might ask yourself where the heck is Bill Bryson going with his book. But a book club member, Honey, mentioned that Bryson wasn't probably writing for science majors. He was targeting the everyday individual, one who might be interested on how scientists were able to make their important discoveries.

Bryson's writing is very enjoyable. And funny. And candid. ASHONE was so successful that Bryson wrote an edition exclusively for kids, entitled A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. Of course, being the book addict that I am, I had to have it. And when the illustrated edition of ASHONE came out, I just have to get it as well. I also have the trade paperback somewhere, though I couldn't find it (even after searching through rows and rows of books at home). Maybe I lent it to someone years ago, hoping that this person would develop an appreciation for the sciences and the oftentimes unheralded work of scientists.

Last year, my favorite read was a non-fiction science book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's a fascinating read about how the cells of one African-American woman helped the progress of cell research. Also, it's sad in a way that Ms. Lacks never knew that scientists would harvest her cells without her consent. When you read this book, you'll know how each and every one of us is indebted to Ms. Lacks and her cells, which are still living even after several years of her death.

So, dear reader, are you one of those people who just flee at the mention of anything relating to science? Maybe it's time to pick up a science book. Start with A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's entertaining and wonderfully geeky.

Love this cyberpunk novel

Reading Paolo Bacigalupi's novel, The Windup Girl, will give you a natural high. Having won the Hugo and the Nebula, one certainly develops expectations even before opening the first page. The Windup Girl has been described as cyberpunk or biopunk, as it's set in an Earth when oil has run out and the major source of fuel are springs that have been coiled with the highest possible amount of joules possible.

We're in a post-apocalypse Thailand, a nation where extinct plant species are resurrected via genetic engineering. It's a Thailand where the most powerful government agencies are two opposing factions -- the Trade Ministry and the Environment Ministry. It's a Thailand where white men (called farang) still make their mark in business. One such farang is Anderson Lake, who oversees the operation of garbage conversion.

Anderson has a fascination for local fruits. When he spots an exotic variety called the rambutan, his determination to find Thailand's seed bank almost becomes a sickness. Then Anderson spots Emiko, a windup. Windups are termed the "new people." They have been bred in test tubes and have been trained to obey. Emiko, a Japanese windup, has been trained for sex. The farang and the windup get into a very unusual relationship filled with sordid sex.

But The Windup Girl is anything but a love story. It touches on the traitorous world of politics, the sleazy dealings in business, and the chilling consequences of technology. Bacigalupi makes it clear that his novel is set in a world where our current 20th century technology (our reliance on oil, electricity, and uncontrolled bioengineering) has failed and people have been left to measure energy on a calorie basis.

The Windup Girl does remind me a bit of Frank Herbert's Dune. You never know who will turn against you. Anderson's assistant, an illegal Chinese immigrant, betrays him. An incorruptible officer of the Environment Ministry is sentenced to become a monk, thus triggering a chain of events. It was inevitable that Trade and Environment engage in a war. The Windup Girl is rife with these political themes. However, Bacigalupi still makes the novel very readable.

The novel's a bit lengthy at more than 500 pages though. But readers are motivated by Bacigalupi's unpredictable turns. And the characterizations of Anderson, Emiko, and the supporting characters are something that the reader will be able to relate with. I bought this book expecting a sci-fi novel thick with cliffhangers, with a fast-paced narrative, and with wonderfully detailed descriptions of place. I wasn't disappointed.

Read this book if:

1. You love cyberpunk and you're a fan of William Gibson.
2. You'll read anything that's won the Hugo and Nebula.
3. The author's name is pronounced BATCH-i-ga-LOOP-ee.