Coffeespoons

Beautiful montage with a beautiful song. In honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

Read: 2/22/09 5/5 stars This is a highly amusing and momentous occasion for me. This is my very first manga book! Why did I buy it? Well, first, someone at Play Book Tag kept raving about it and I think I noticed that both of us liked the same sort of books. Then, I was a bit bored while I was waiting at the mall earlier. And when I entered Comic Quest and asked about the book, lo and behold, there it was and i still had some money left. So, I bought it. Truth to tell, I was also a bit curious about the right-to-left reading orientation. Oh, did I mention it's about vampires? Think Twilight, but set in a European high school boarding school where the Day Class is composed of humans and the Night Class of vampires. Then, think of Bella as a disciplinary wcommittee member who keeps the vampires in line, but also protects the humans from knowing that their Night Class counterparts are vampires. Next, think of Edward as still a brooding and powerful vampire, but WAAAAY hotter than Rob...

Read: 2/21/09 4/5 stars I found this treasure at Booksale, and though I wasn't supposed to buy any more books (owing to my New Year's Resolution), I couldn't let this one go. I always say that illustrations bother me because I'm not really a very visual person. Neither do I buy books because they're pretty; I often focus on the text, and usually mass-market paperback versions are good enough for me. However, when I saw this book, I had to throw my resolution out the window again. The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripp is, according to its blurb, "an adult story for children, a children's story for adults." I would say that's a very good summation. When I became an adult (read, when I turned 18, 'cause Lord knows if I'm really an adult), I developed a taste for children's literature--something which i left behind me soon after the third grade. Currently, having children provides me an excuse to buy children's books that I love. And us...

Read: 2/18/09 4/5 stars Still working on my Pulitzer Project. But I read this not just because it's a Pulitzer winner. I gave it to a friend last Christmas, who said she loved it and read it in two days. She also asked if I chose it because the blurb reminded me of her. I have to say I did. Breathing Lessons is about a middle aged husband and wife, Ira and Maggie Moran, who go on a road trip to visit a friend's husband's funeral. There is nothing particularly remarkable about Ira and Maggie. They are live in a small town, run a small business, have one grown-up son and a daughter about to go away to college. They do, however, have one estranged daughter-in-law and granddaughter, owing to their son's divorce. On their way to the funeral and back, Maggie keeps trying to convince her husband to visit their granddaughter, whom they have not seen in years. The desire is brought about since Maggie supposedly hears their former daughter-in-law over the radio claiming that she...

Read: 2/12/09 3/5 stars I believe I first read Love Story either late in high school or early in college. I fell so in love with it then that I proceeded to buy and read most of Segal's available books at that time: Oliver's Story , The Class , Doctors , Acts of Faith . Aside from liking his stories, I was so enamored with Harvard then that I gobbled up everything that referred to Segal's alma mater (and boy, were there many). But that was long ago, and I believe I've "graduated" from plain romance novels already. Hence, I wasn't particularly excited to read Love Story again for my book club's February discussion. That, and the fact that I'm not really given to rereading books, except for a couple of favorites. But read it I did, even if I couldn't exactly make the discussion. And this is what I found after my rereading of Love Story: I still like the snappy dialogue. Both Oliver and Jenny are obviously intelligent (Segal takes care of that f...

Read: 2/11/09 5/5 stars Who hasn't heard of Time Traveler's Wife? Especially now that it's going to be made into a movie . First heard about it when I asked a good friend, Karen, to contribute to the little newsletter about books I used to make for the faculty in our school. This is her short review, posted here without her permission (though I am hoping that she won't mind, soon as I let her know or soon as she finds out herself): “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger tells the unusual love story of Henry and Clare. What makes their story different is that Henry has a genetic condition that causes him to time-travel to his past or future without his control. When Clare is 20, she meets 28-year-old Henry in his present. Though Clare has known him practically almost all her life since he has appeared to her intermittently since she was six, for the present Henry, however, it would be a few more years before he would meet the six-year-old Clare. Co...

Read: 2/6/09 4/5 stars This is my first Christopher Moore, and I think I'm in love. Let me explain why... Moore isn't a serious literary writer. So I don't love him for his elegant prose. Nor does he deal with weighty issues. So, not for his depth of insight either. Rather, this is a case of loving the guy who makes you laugh, and not Hamlet. I first heard of Moore when some people were raving over him at down at 50 Book Challenge . The main comment was how funny he is. Now, tell me that a male writer is funny, and I will most likely check the male writer out, which is what I did with Moore. And this, Bloodsucking Fiends, was the only book I could get my hands on for now. I do have a liking for vampire literature, but I don't really pick just any old vampire novel up. (e.g., I have avoided all of Christine Feehan's books) Besides, I didn't pick this book up because it was vampire-themed. Primarily, I just wanted a Christopher Moore book. There'...

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff A Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris Amazing Grace by Tara FT Sering B Baby Proof by Emily Giffin The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe C Cirque du Freak # 1: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, Book 2) by Cassandra Clare City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, Book 1) by Cassandra Clare City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, Book 3) by Cassandra Clare Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1) by Cassandra Clare Club Dead by Charlaine Harris D The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl Dead and Gone  by Charlaine Harris Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris Definitely D...

A Adams, Richard - Watership Down Allen, Sarah Addison - Garden Spells Atwood, Margaret Alias Grace Surfacing Auster, Paul - The Book of Illusions B Barrie, J.M. - Peter Pan Brooks, Geraldine - March Bulgakov, Mikhail - The Master and Margarita Burton, Betsy - The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller Bryson, Bill A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Shakespeare: The World as Stage C Cain, Chelsea - Heartsick Cisneros, Sandra - The House on Mango Street Clare, Cassandra The Mortal Instruments Trilogy City of Bones City of Ashes City of Glass The Infernal Devices Trilogy Clockwork Angel Collins, Suzanne The Hunger Games Mockingjay Collins, Wilkie - The Woman in White Cronin, Justin - The Passage D Dalisay, Jose Jr. - Soledad's Sister David, Adam - The El Bimbo Variations DeLillo, Don - White Noise Desai, Kiran - The Inheritance of Loss Dunant, Sarah - The Birth of Venus E Eg...

Legend: Books I've read - bold Books with a review - linked 2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 2007 - The Road (McCarthy) 2006 - March (Brooks) 2005 - Gilead (Robinson) 2004 - The Known World (Jones) 2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides) 2002 - Empire Falls (Russo) 2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon) 2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri) 1999 - The Hours (Cunningham) 1998 - American Pastoral (Roth) 1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser) 1996 - Independence Day (Ford) 1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields) 1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx) 1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler) 1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley) 1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike) 1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos) 1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler) 1988 - Beloved (Morrison) 1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor) 1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry) 1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie) 1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy) 1983 - The Color Purple (Wal...

I'm taking a class on the History of the Book, and currently, we're going beyond the plain "history" but looking at where all these historical patterns might be leading us. Here are a few articles that we took up and might be of interest to some of you. "The Future of Reading" by Stephen Levy (Newsweek) "The Library in the New Age" by Robert Darnton (The New York Review of Books) The first one features the perspective of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, hence seems pro the death of books as we know it (meaning, the codex form). The second, by the god of book historians, Robert Darnton, prophesies against the death of the codex, at least for research libraries. A few quotes I lifted from these articles: "All texts born digital belong to an endangered species." "Obsolescence is built into the electronic media." "Books are the last bastion of analog." So what do you think? Do you think the book will die in our lifetime?

Read: 2/5/09 2/5 stars Another comedy that I don't understand. And no, this book has nothing to do with the Michael Keaton movie of the same title. "White Noise" comes highly recommended. It won the US National Book Award in 1985 and is on the Time 100 Best Novels list. But I believe I've read enough of critically-acclaimed books to know that not all of them are to my taste or even what I would consider good reads. Nevertheless, I persist in my plan of reading these critics' favorites because I would like to decide for myself. My decision on this one is that I am annoyed. White Noise is supposed to be a book of the times, a book that chronicles the state of a nation. So, yes, DeLillo satirizes American consumerism and the ubiquity of media in this post-modern novel. But I seriously never liked post-modernism overly intellectualized, especially when it doesn't tries to be witty but fails horribly. Among the book's characters are a professor who's a l...

Read: 2/3/09 3/5 stars James Bond-type spy stuff carried out by a 14 year old boy who does not, so far, try to charm every woman or any woman, for that matter, off her pants. Stormbreaker is the first book in what is known as the Alex Rider series. If the title sounds familiar, you might have seen the movie . I haven't, though. Not completely. But I believe I saw enough to think that the boy who plays Alex Rider just might give Ewan MacGregor (playing Ian Rider, the uncle) a run for his money. Alex begins his life of espionage in much the same way Peter Parker begins life as a superhero--his father figure gets killed. The difference is, where Uncle Ben is this adorable, wisdom-sprouting old man, Ian Rider is a banker who is really an undercover spy working for MI6, a British intelligence outfit. Ian is killed in the course of one of his undercover assignments, leaving it unfinished. Alex is then recruited to join the same outfit in order to continue his uncle's mission because,...

Read: 2/1/09 4 stars This book has been waiting on my shelf for months now, and I got to picking it up because I was looking for something light and fun. Turns out, I picked perfectly. For those of you who haven't--Stephanie Plum just got laid off and can't seem to find any job for her. So, she turns to her cousin Vinnie, who gets her a job as a bounty hunter, the type that brings in FTAs (Failure to Appear, which is what they call people who fail to show up for their court date.) The money is immensely attractive to Stephanie, but her first case is somewhat complicated since she has to bring in Joe Morelli, a cop who was accused of murdering an unarmed person and a man with whom Stephanie has had a colorful history. The book is funny, and the action really moves along quickly, but what I really liked was Stephanie's character and the predicament she was in--not having a job, therefore no money, and having to do whatever was necessary just so she could live. That situation ...

Read (Dragondrums): 2/1/09 Whole series: 2 stars I generally like fantasy books with dragons and such, so I did own a couple of Anne McCaffrey books when I was younger. The next time I read her was almost a decade after, when Play Book Tag 's tag of the month was Dragons. I had recently bought the complete Harper Hall Trilogy from one of my favorite booksellers, Jasper of avalon.ph . So, I was hoping for one of those series that I could really settle into and would leave me morose after it had ended because there was no more story. Unfortunately, I didn't get what I hoped for. Perhaps I've outgrown her, or perhaps I chose the wrong books, but I seriously found that reading the first two books, which I read a few months ago, only slightly better than watching grass grow. Her main character for the first two in the series is Menolly. She seemed an interesting teenager, misunderstood and downtrodden, especially by her family--you know, the stuff of Filipin o telenovelas. But t...