Coffeespoons

I think part of the growth of a reader is to start trying out books or genres which one doesn't usually read. The trial might result in a long-term love affair with the genre, temporary preference, mild tolerance, or outright rejection. Even if it's the last case, one can at least say, "I don't like ." and know whereof one speaks. Enter the Flips Flipping Pages (FFP) 2013 Diversity Reading Challenge . As I mentioned, we resurrected the challenge this year with new categories. Three years, after all, is enough time for new book trends to gain prominence. And given the changes in technology, I believe it's high time for us to explore the new ways that content is packaged. This Diversity Challenge is open to members of our book club, Flips Flipping Pages , an online/offline book club for Filipinos all over the world. If you're interested, you can head on over to Shelfari to join the club, with the click of a button. If you don't want to o...

Seriously, what can you say about this book that hasn't already been said? I don’t remember anymore where I first read about Justin Cronin’s The Passage, b u t I do remember that, around June or July, almost everyone was talking about it or reviewing it. Never mind that it’s 766 pages long—people read it or wanted to read it. Not a surprise, considering the hype, I guess. And since I’m big on hype, of course I bought it and read it. So, does The Passage deserve its humungous hype? I’d say yes. Not a resounding yes, but a yes all the same. In The Passage , there is a scientific trip to the Amazon government that goes horribly wrong, there is a top-secret government experiment that also goes horribly wrong, and there is the world, changed forever because of both these events. Then there are the people. There’s Brad Wolgast, an FBI agent who, with his partner, rounds up death row inmates to participate in said government experiment. Nice sort of guy who has his own...

Read: 4 August 2009 I'd been dreaming of buying this book for a while, but kept putting it off. I love vampire stories, and the blurb of this hooked me--"Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain." Fortunately, I got it in one of our book club book swaps, courtesy of Peter . Capt. Abner Marsh, Fevre Dream 's main character, used to be a prosperous steamboat captain and owner, but no longer. Due to some disasters, he lost his fleet of boats. One day, he is approached by Joshua York, a mysterious gentleman who offers him enough money to build the grandest boat the Mississippi has seen, with certain conditions. Joshua wants to co-captain the boat, though the daily running of the steamship will be left to Abner. Periodically, Joshua might have peculiar requests, which are to be obeyed at all times and never questioned. The temptation of a boat grander and faster than what currently plies the Mississippi pushes Abner to agree to Joshua's requests. And so the Fevre Dream is built, n...

Read: 3/16/09 3/5 stars I'm into vampire literature, so i didn't want to pass up a chance to read Darren Shan. After all, it's geared for young adults, like Twilight, though I heard a bit darker. I'm not sure if I agree with the darker part. The protagonist, coincidentally (wink) named after Darren Shan, goes with his best friend to watch an underground freak show, and, due to circumstances that only a teenager with an overactive imagination will get into, ends up having to apprentice himself to a real vampire who works in the freak show. Why don't I think that this is especially dark? Because the vampire himself says that vampires are not really evil creatures. They even shun making vampires out of people who have "bad" blood--people who have it in them to be killers. Also, to transform one into a vampire, one just has to do it through the fingers. The vampire pricks the fingers of the victim with his nails, pricks his own fingers, the two hold their fing...