Overbooked Reader

Author: Chris Mariano Title: Cover (Story) Girl Place Published: Manila, Philippines Publisher: Christelle Rhodamae Mariano Year Published: 2013 No. of Pages: 131 Pages (Print Version) Price: US$0.99 Place Bought: Amazon Cover illustration and design by Miguel Calvan Chris Mariano, in her first self-published novella Cover (Story) Girl, shows how a Philippine-based koreanovela can be told well through the power of words.  Her story is set in Boracay, known for its white sand beaches and all-night parties. But this isn’t a story about clubbing, flings, and other typical Boracay stuff. Instead, it begins with Gio, head curator of his family-owned Boracay Heritage Museum.  Gio is busy preparing for an exhibition when a group of Korean tourists enter the museum for a photo shoot. Among them is a girl in blue: the pretty, pixie-like, and cream-skinned Jang Min Hee.  Gio finds her attractive, but is put-off by her prima donna attitude. He scolds her for moving ...

Author: Mina V. Esguerra Title: Love Your Frenemies Place Published: Manila, Philippines Publisher: Mina V. Esguerra  Year Published: 2011 No. of Pages: 119 (on my Samsung Galaxy S3) Price: US$3.99 (Kindle Version) Place Bought: Amazon  The book cover of my Kindle version. Love Your Frenemies is a contemporary romance novella about Kimmy Domingo, a young woman who had everything going for her in life. She grew up comfortably under the loving care of her mother, and the money of her father, who had left the family when Kimmy was but a child. Father’s money paid for membership to the Country Club, where mother and daughter spent plenty of time with loved ones over the years. Career-wise Kimmy was the very best, and a promotion was definitely coming soon. It was also at work where she found the love of her life. But disaster struck when he unceremoniously dumped her a week before their wedding. Word spread through the grapevine, and the rumor-mill at wo...

Author: Stephen King Title: Doctor Sleep Place Published: New York, USA Publisher: Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Year Published: 2013 No. of Pages: 531 Price: Php 1,199.00 (Hardcover) Place Bought: Fully Booked Rockwell The Shining is one of my favorite Stephen King books, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of its sequel  Doctor Sleep . The new novel follows the story of Danny Torrance, who grows up following in the footsteps of his dad. Struggling with alcoholism, he travels from town to town in search of menial jobs, until he reaches a certain New Hampshire town. There, under the guidance of his new employer, he joins Alcoholics Anonymous in an attempt to overcome his addiction. As Dan recovers, so does his Shining . He finds a job at a hospice where he uses his powers to provide dying patients some comfort. This is when he is contacted by Abra, a young girl with the strongest Shining Dan's ever known. Meanwhile, a group of qu...

I was working for the Filipinas Heritage Library back i n 2012, when the 2nd Filipino ReaderCon (filreadercon) was held there. A literary event catering to the growing community of Filipino readers, the filreadercon features numerous talks, book discussions, an awarding ceremony for Filipino authors, and a meet-and-greet for everyone at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I was part of the organizing committee back then, and wasn't able to attend all the talks and book discussions I wanted.  Fast forward to 2013, and the filreadercon was held at a new venue: the Rizal Library at Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). I was excited to attend the 3rd Filipino ReaderCon with the theme What Do Readers Want? as a participant this time around. Besides being an avid reader, I also just started this book blog a few months back. Although the event was moved from November to December 7, 2013 because of a typhoon, the change in schedule didn't really bother me. I also wanted to see ...

I was having dinner with a friend a week ago when she asks me if I've seen Ruby Sparks , a romantic comedy-drama directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the same people behind Little Miss Sunshine . Unfortunately, I've watched neither, until I watched the first movie   his evening. Ruby Sparks , written by Zoe Kazan who doubles as the female lead, tells the story of Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano), a writer struggling to write a follow-up to his successful first novel. Calvin has no friends other than his dog Scotty and brother Harry (Chris Messina). He regularly sees a therapist named Dr. Rosenthal (Elliott Gould). The therapist recommends that Calvin could use Scotty as a reason to talk with women while they walked around the park. Unfortunately, Scotty is a very shy dog that women don't seem to like. Thus, Dr. Rosenthal tries something else. He gives Calvin an assignment: write about a woman in the park, a special woman who actually likes Scotty. Inspired b...

Author: Stephen King Title: Under the Dome  Place Published: New York, USA Publisher: Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Year Published: 2009 No. of Pages: 1072 Price: Php 546 Place Bought: Fully Booked Rockwell Synopsis Never before reading Under the Dome by Stephen King would I have believed that a used car salesman named Big Jim Rennie would make a good antagonist for a science-fiction, horror novel. He wasn't selling supernaturally monstrous vehicles or anything like that. He was just a terrifying human being with extraordinary ambitions for power and affluence. It's just another day in a small American town called Chester's Mill in Maine when an invisible barrier descended and separated the town from the rest of the world. The dome's appearance caused several death's in Chester's Mill, driving the remaining inhabitants into fear and chaos. Claudette Sanders, wife of the town's first selectman Andy Sanders, was t...

Author: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan Title:  Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist Place Published:  New York, USA Publisher:  Ember, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a Division of Random House, Inc. Year Published:  2006 No. of Pages:  183 Price:  Php 360.00  Place Bought:  Fully Booked, 2013 MIBF The Calm Before the Storm What would you do if some stranger in a club asks if you would be his girlfriend for the next five minutes? What do you think would happen if you said 'yes?' So begins the story Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Nick, a band member, lyricist, and generally nice guy, was dumped by his girlfriend, who he is still madly in love with. Norah, who recently broke up with her boyfriend, is still recovering.  The two meet each other at a club. Nick's in a panic because he sees his ex-girlfriend approaching the bar. He sees Norah and asks her if she would be his girlfriend for the next five minutes. No...

Last Saturday, I attempted to leave three books-- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey (very used), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (brand new), and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (brand new), but my plan was thwarted by the staff of Starbucks 515 Shaw. The photo's a bit glared, but here's where i was supposed to leave  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens That particular Starbucks being my second home ever since my college years (when it was still located in Lee Gardens a block away), I decided to ask the barista (whom I knew) for permission to leave the books on empty tables. He said 'yes,' but a few minutes later his superior said 'no.' She said I had to have permission from their head office prior to doing the book drop. I didn't want to argue, so I just let the issue go and sat down to read The Dome by Stephen King. John Green's The Fault in Our Stars is one of my favorite novels ...

As part of the POPtastik Pinoy! program of activities held in celebration of Text in the City: The 4th Philippine International Literary Festival , Ayala Museum will hold City Fiction 100 , a flash fiction masterclass, on November 15, 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. This workshop is open to professional and budding writers of all ages. Participants will get feedback from acclaimed writers Sarge Lacuesta and Krys Lee , and the country's first literary agent Andrea Pasion-Flores , with travel writer Kristine Fonacier as moderator. Korean-American writer Krys Lee is our special guest for this year's LitFest. She will be discussing and launching her book Drifting House on the morning of November 15. She will also join the City Fiction 100 panel in the afternoon. The goal is simple: in 100 words or less, write about a city, real or imagined. More than a dozen people have already submitted their works of flash fiction, less than a week after the masterclass was announced! ...

Filipino writers will discuss folk and popular literature as shown in komiks, TV, and film as the National Book Development Board ( NBDB ), Filipinas Heritage Library ( FHL ), and Ayala Museum hold POPtastik Pinoy! this November. P leas e click to enlarge poster. The event is part of the 4th Philippine International Literary Festival. Titled Text and the City , the LitFest will take place in the major universities in Metro Manila from November 11-14 and at the Ayala Museum on November 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Lit Fest will feature local and regional writers. Xu Xi, Hong Kong-based writer of Access: Thirteen Tales will speak in UST; Singapore-based writer Kamini Ramachandran and London’s Jasmine Anne Corray, writer of Everything We Don't Say will speak in DLSU; Peter Swirski, Canadian scholar, literary critic, and writer of From Highbrow to Nobrow will speak in ADMU; Singaporean Suchen Lim, author of The River's Song , will speak in UP; and American ...

The Books of My Childhood If there's one thing I like more than reading, it's playing video games (especially role-playing games), and that's what I spent most of my leisure time doing as a child. Of course, my parents, especially my mother, didn't want me glued to the PC monitor or TV screen all day, so she encouraged me to read books. She gave me all The Chronicles of Narnia novels by C.S. Lewis, of which I have only read Prince Caspian and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe , to this day. She also bought me several of Roald Dahl novels of which I remember reading Esio Trot , The BFG , and James and the Giant Peach . There were others, like Matilda and The Witches , which have lain dormant on my bookshelf form more than a decade. I also remember reading several Hardy Boys and combined Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mysteries, with encouragement from my mother. My uncle gave me the first three X-Files novels , which I thought was really cool. Goosebumps a novel...