Coffeespoons

10:28AM - Still in Grab, on my way to Drafts. Late, like the last 2 times.😛 Bringing the following books… I See Yellow Flowers in the Green Grass (Vietnamese lit) and The Indio & The Impaler (Filipino lit) 10:48AM - Made it! Not late, because we're just starting the silent reading portion. 2:31PM - Omg, just finished the discussion. And here ends my update, because I basically forgot. I do want to say that these Read & Meet sessions organized by Alexx are a joy and truly a lovely way to spend Saturday mornings. A few of us are "regulars" now, but always happy whenever a new person joins the mix. I was reading I SEE YELLOW FLOWERS IN THE GREEN GRASS, which I've since finished and is honestly a delight. During my turn yapping--and God forgive me, but I yap a lot--talked about how I bought this in Hanoi as I was looking for a bestseller or a beloved book that wasn't declared a beloved book from the lens of Western translators/publi...

Look! I have tabs! (Originally published on Wordpress, 11 Nov 2025 ) This was a joy of a book. Reminds me of the headiness of falling into N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy . Or the wonder of discovering Eddings’ The Mallorean series (please don’t hate me. I really did love The Mallorean when I was a teen) or Terry Brooks’ Shannara series . You know: complex but truly well done worlds, amazing characters that you like, a magic system that makes sense within the world, great pacing, and astute social commentary. To give a little bit of context, Foundryside is set in a world where objects are scrived—a process where words or symbols are written on an object to make them do things that may or may not be opposed to their nature. And the purpose of scriving objects is, presumably, to make life easier for people because, say, you can scrive a carriage’s wooden wheels to go faster. Except that the instructions and know-how for scriving are owned by only four families who live...

  Have long waited for a Del Rey title to  win the Hugo , and now, here we are! It’s also won the  World Fantasy Awards  recently.  Anyway, I feel like I’ve slept on Robert Jackson Bennet for so long, despite strong recommendations from readers I trust. I sought to remedy that recently.  So now, I’ve finished the book. And by golly, I love it. I love Ana and Din. I love the world Bennett created. I love how weird but utterly logical it is. I love how things are revealed and how the action is driven forward. I love the deadpan humor. I love how the mystery is thrown into relief by the reality of leviathans threatening all their lives that everything else pales in comparison. I even love the names (because sometimes, names in SF&F books kind of make me cringe).  Reading THE TAINTED CUP reminded me of the joy of starting an SF&F series by an excellent writer. It reminded me a bit of how it felt to read Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (though Jemisin’s ...

Yesterday I went to the second READ & MEET: A Read Together Session, organized by the lovely Alexx Majam of Drafts Gift Shop & Studio in Quezon City.  Essentially, Read & Meet is a silent reading/book lover socializing session, the brainchild of Alexx and Ilia (I think! Correct me if I’m wrong, Ilia!). It’s held in the workshop area of Alexx’s flower shop, Dratfts, which isn’t a huge space, so there’s only room for 10 people, making for a cozy reading session.  I’d been to the first one as well, as I do know both Ilia and Alexx professionally. On occasion, I even try to convince them to do some other reading-related events for both work and fun. I didn’t think I’d make it to this second one, because of scheduling conflicts and because when Alexx announced the sign-ups, I think the slots filled up very quickly. But fortuitously, my schedule cleared up and someone canceled, so I got the last slot. This was the table, from my POV, artfully cluttered with flowers an...

Happy April 1! I have no jokes; instead, in the grand tradition of book content creators everywhere, here is a reading wrap-up. And because it's a holiday here in the Philippines, I actually took the time to compare wrap-ups of Goodreads , Fable , and Storygraph . And as you'll see here, I used Storygraph.  Honestly, I update Goodreads and Fable more. But Fable has the disadvantage of being difficult to add new books, and I like to include the Philippine-published titles I've read. I love you, Philippine publisher and writer friends, but I do let out a yell of frustration whenever I try to add Philippine title on Goodreads, and I can't find it. And yes, Goodreads is my first stop, because of longevity and because from experience, it's highly likely that if the title isn't on Goodreads, it's not going to be on Fable or Storygraph. But the inverse is not true. All to say, Goodreads still has the largest database. But it's not so much of a problem if the ti...

PRH US titles from Filipino creators Obviously this post is work-related, but I also love doing this, so let's call this a mix of business and pleasure. A few months ago, I posted a version of this on my IG, but lists and announcements in the industry are constantly updated, so I've updated this list as well. This is supposed to be a list of Filipino authors and illustrators (creators) who are being published this 2025 by Penguin Random House US and its distribution clients (publishers who do not belong to PRH US, but who are distributed by PRH both in the US and worldwide). But I snuck in two kids' titles that were pubbed in 2023, because, well, I just found out that the illustrator was from the Philippines. Does this happen often, that I realize belatedly that a creator is from the Philippines? Not often, because we honestly make it a point to find the Filipino creators on our lists. But it does happen occasionally because, well, we have a very big list. This list also h...

I’ve been actively avoiding posting content on Meta (FB/IG/Threads) for ethical and practical reasons, i.e., Z*ck seems to be a douchebag who apparently enjoys manipulating humanity for profit, and I think that in the long run, it’s better to own my own content. I haven’t left the platforms to still keep track of people, wish them happy birthday, check brands, etc, but I tell myself not to post anything of mine directly anymore. Let me tell you right now: it’s hard. I’m chatty and I like sharing things, and my main platform for sharing was Meta. And yes, most of my communities are there.  I do share the most on BlueSky now, which I’m using like the good ol’ days of Twitter (RIP, Twitter). But while I believe Bsky has enormous potential, right now, there just aren’t that many people there yet, or even news sites. (Shoutout, by the way, to the few #romanceclass people I do interact with on Bsky!) So, I take photos and because I don’t want to put them on IG, I make plans to create e...

Ichi’s new book, ACCIDENTS HAPPEN , is now in Philippine stores! And around the world, yes, but as I am Filipino and so is Ichi, I figure this is a special thing.  I took these photos on Sunday, Mar. 23, for reference! At Fully Booked BGC!  At Fully Booked the Block. The smaller one, not the Fully Booked x Kinokuniya one at the higher floor! Though that other branch also has stock!  And I also found the order page on Fully Booked's website .  (As a caveat, allocations for the websites/Shopee/Lazada are different from the allocations in the physical stores. This means that sometimes, if it says out of stock on the website, this doesn't mean there are no more copies in the branches! It only means that the allocation for the online platforms have run out! So I always suggest to friends that if you see a book out of stock on a store website's, go to or call a branch and ask where there are possible copies. They can search that for you and tell you! And you can also ask t...

This week found me in London, at my tenth Penguin Random House US International Sales Conference, which means I’ve been with PRH for nine years now. It’s the longest time I’ve spent in one job. And in total, I’ve been in the book industry—local and international—for 16 yrs. Many people in the industry often say that people who start working in books stay in books, albeit they might move around. From what I can see, this is true, despite it being famously a low salary industry (compared to other industries, that is). I think there are many reasons for this, but I’m guessing one of the main ones is that if you’re in the book industry, you probably love books. Love reading, love anything to do with the written word and the worlds it creates or the fire or comfort it brings. That counts for a lot when your parents ask you why you didn’t push through with becoming an engineer, because imagine your salary now. (Kidding. They don’t ask me that. Anymore.) And then there are the people. Don’t g...