Trying Out a New Author

What with the soltera, Hong Kong trip, wedding and planning our anniversary trip, it was a WONDER that I started --- and finished --- Jodi Picoult's Songs of the Humpback Whale!

A basic summary: Jane runs away from her husband after a major fight. Her daughter goes with her. She writes to her brother who tells her where to go in his next letter, delivered to the Post Office of the next town. This continues until Jane's husband, a well-known oceanographer, finally tracks her down.

This is a pretty deep, complex book. I was very confused with the book having 5 different narrators, not just Jane. It was a chore to have to completely change my reading perspective every chapter, but as I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. :) Jodi Picoult explores these 5 characters and how they relate to each other very thoroughly. Then the reader gets to tie everything together. Though not by all means predictable, Songs of the Humpback Whales is most definitely NOT an easy read. Be prepared to spend a few hours delving into this book.

New Books for Raegan

I know, this blog is really for MY reading habits and the books that I read. But if I can influence other people, i.e., my kids (!) into the habit of reading, then they most definitely deserve mention in this blog, yes? :)

{Bookstore Run}

After lunch at Serendra with the Gavinos, Raegan and I went to the bookstore to pick a book series for her to read. Junie B Jones was getting to be too easy for her, and I could barely pick a word from the books to supplement her vocabulary! She would breeze through the books and I felt that she needed a litte bit more of a challenge, especially since I wanted her to learn more words.

So she looked and looked and looked. I pointed her towards the older kids section and she spent a few minutes looking at books. With some suggestions, she narrowed down her choice to a couple of books from the Little House on the Prairie series: Little House on Rocky Ridge and Little House in Brookfield.

This series is appropriately for Grades 3-5, which is fine for vocabulary purposes. And at least she's chosen chapter books again, so that's definitely a plus! Hopefully, she'll get into reading again, right before school starts.

Now to work on the other two kids.....

All that time spent in the bookstore brought back memories of reading books just for the pleasure of it. I survived on Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins and all books written by Enid Blyton. I've always had a thirst for knowledge and that has definitely helped me during all my school years. I am hoping that Raegan will follow in my footsteps.

Keeping a Secret....NOT!

Sophie Kinsella, author of the (in)famous Shopaholic series, writes Can You Keep A Secret in a witty, light, HILARIOUS way! I kid you not when I say that I could NOT put the book down. I settled in bed around midnight, meaning to read a couple of chapters before going to sleep.

Uhmmm....NOT! I read through the ENTIRE book and ended at 4 am! Hehehehe! I could NOT put it down! I was laughing out loud then would automatically look at Ranger and Japa, hoping I didn't wake them with my guffaws! :)

Emma Corrigan, a nervous flyer, thinks that she will meet inevitable death when her plane hits turbulence. She grabs the arm of a complete stranger and babbles ALL her secrets away. They land, and Emma thinks she will never see the stranger again. Wrong!

This stranger turns out to be the CEO of the company she works for! And with every conversation they have, the stranger, Jack Harper, constantly refers to some of Emma's secrets. And so begins a story that is emotionally exhausting and hilarious at the same time. Again, I could not put it down; I really wanted to find out how everything would turn out!

Light reading, definitely a Chick Lit book. No guy would probably be caught dead reading this, but it is just SO fun!!! Take it to the beach, and enjoy it!

Happy reading! Back to Shakespeare now.......

THE Classic Author

William Shakespeare of course! Ever since I held my first Shakespeare book when I was a freshman in high school (Assumption San Lorenzo), I fell in love with this bard. That first book was Julius Caesar. We were made to memorize the speech of either Marc Antony or Brutus and then declaim in front of the entire class. I'm pretty sure I chose Marc Antony, and his (in)famous speech started with "Friends, Romans, Countrymen.....I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...." Or maybe it was Brutus? I can't remember...but I DO remember that speech, and I got a grade of Outstanding for it, too!

And so my love affair with William Shakespeare started. In my senior year at Immaculate Heart, in my Advanced Placement Language Class, we were asked to write a paper on the application of Shakespeare of LIGHT in his most famous romance novel, Romeo and Juliet. "Oh Romeo, oh Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?" :)

And who would have thought I'd end up marrying a Romeo? Hehehe.

Back to Romeo and Juliet. I feverishly read and re-read the novel from cover to cover, writing down and citing several instances where Shakespeare applied light in the novel. It was enough to fill up at least 8 pages worth of citations and explanations. The day our teacher returned our papers, she gave out everything except mine. I was sick to my stomach, thinking that maybe I had forgotten to put quotation marks somewhere and she'd have me for plagiarizing!!! Ack!

To my surprise, our teacher told our entire class that she just HAD to read this particular paper (I still didn't know it was mine, dunce that I was, hehehe) because it was just so very inspiring and well written......she had barely finished the first paragraph when a thrill shot through me: She was reading MY paper! MY PAPER!!!! :)

And so my love affair with William Shakespeare continued.

I wanted to impart to the kids this love of Shakespeare for the longest time....but I had difficulty finding a book that was in plain English, not the thee, thou, thy of the Olden English language. I wanted a simple, straightforward book that would tell the story without need for a dictionary or a thesaurus at hand.

So when I spied this particular book at our nearby National Bookstore, I just HAD to purchase it!
The Illustrated Tales from Shakespeare, A Modern Adaptation from the Charles and Mary Lamb Classic.

I am now reading through it and re-living my love affair with THE William Shakespeare. Then I'm going to have the kids read it. This particular version is written for the 9-12 year range after all. But obviously, I have GOT to know the stories very well so as to be able to discuss it (here on my blog and) with the kids.

Happy Reading!

A Snippet from World History

Xerxes Invades Greece, supposedly narrated by Herodotus. I bought this book a few days after the "high" we all felt from watching 300, the movie. I wanted ---needed---to know more about the story of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartan warriors. The movie pretty much immortalized Leonidas and the kind of men (and women, hehehe) from the Greek state of Sparta.

To my utter disappointment, this book failed to deliver. I guess I should have known that the scenes that I was looking for were going to be skimmed over. After all, this book is one in a series of several books (20 extracts from The Histories!!!) that is published by Penguin Epics.

Anyhoo, I waded through mindless descriptions of King Xerxes and his army and navy --- commanders of which were thoroughly NAMED by Herodotus. I mean really, if the reader wanted a story and not a history text, you'd drop this book like a hot potato! But silly, stubborn me, wanted to find the part where Leonidas fought to the death.

I found it on page 72. For about 4 whole pages. That was it. And to think that I read this book for what seemed the loooooongest time ever for an itsy-bitsy 113-page book! Sigh! Onward to the next book, I say. And no, I will NOT be picking up any more extracts from The Histories, that's for sure! I don't need to know endless names of Greek and Persian generals or captains.

Word of the day today is EXTIRPATE. to destroy totally; to exterminate. In the context of this book: King Xerxes set out to extirpate Greece with his Persian army.

Oh well. At the very least, the book allowed me to use the WOD today, hehehe.

On to my journey......I will be staying with the classics and I picked out a compilation of Shakespeare :)

Happy reading!

On the Brink of Death...

I finished reading For One More Day by Mitch Albom a few days ago....and it couldn't have been more timely.

I talked about a favorite Tita and how she is now fighting for her life. In this book, Chick Benetto, the main character laments the fact that his mother dies when he is away, secretly meeting with his father who divorced his mother eight years ago.

In an analogy, I like to think that while Tita San was being operated on in an emergency operation in South Korea, we were, at that precise moment, having our first Friday mass in the office. We prayed fervently for her, that she would pull through the brain operation. It was a nerve-wracking day to say the least, but Tita San DID pull through and is currently in the intensive care unit.

This book tells of a mother's unconditional love for her son. That no matter where she is, and whatever she is doing, she will drop everything to show how much love she has. The book is all about the power of a mother's love, how it transcends time and space to prove itself. And yes, that life comes full circle.

That last bit is a fantastic and welcome scene, in my opinion. I had goosebumps when I realized how true it is, and how Mitch Albom worked it in his book.

Many chapters are entitled "Times I Did Not Stand Up for My Mother" and some "Times My Mother Stood Up for Me". These chapters basically make the reader realize no matter what happens, no matter who or what we turn out to be, our mothers will always be there, rooting for us, picking us up when we fall, cheering for us when we succeed. But always, ALWAYS, there is the most powerful emotion in the whole wide world: there is LOVE.

Word of the Day

Yay! As I promised myself, I was going to put up a Word of the Day section on this blog to improve my vocabulary. And I did! Check out the right side, just under my profile.

Isn't that cool?!?!? Hehehe. At least I'm going to be having a NEW word to try and use everyday! You can get the html code for setting up the WoD; get your Webmaster Tools here.

There were a lot more options to add if I wanted to like Quote of the Day, or Birthday people for the day, even What Happened in History Today! Great options, but until I am able to fix up this blog a little bit, I don't want too much clutter in here.

So for now, visit when you can and get your word of the day here..

Happy Reading!

Books on My Night Table

I took a look at my night table....and it is full of stacked books. I do love to read, and I consider myself an eclectic reader, rarely sticking to one genre. I do love a good read, and I've found pleasure in science fiction, romance, mystery...pretty much anything! Just as long as it has an interesting, unpredictable plot, I'm hooked.

Ok, the following books --- both read and unread --- are currently on my nightstand:

1. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

2. The Memory Book by Penelope J. Stokes

3. Herodotus/Xerxes Invades Greece

4. The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

5. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

6. The Holy Bible

7. The God Stories by Leila Berg

8. The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan

9. For One More Day by Mitch Albom

No, this is not an automated generated list. It's fact, excuse the pun, hehehe. So what kind of reader do you think I am? Your guess is as good as mine.

Oh, and before I forget, other books on my nightstand include a couple of books on Sudoku and a crossword puzzle book. Those are musts to me, and I just feel better that I have my basic books by my bedside. It's something to reach for when sleep eludes me.

The Average Bookworm

That's me. I don't purport to be a highly-intellectual, scholastic reading genius. Nah...on the contrary, I like to think myself as truly an average bookworm.

Someone who reads the latest books.

Someone who reads the trendy, "in" books.

Someone who reads whatever the heck she wants to.

And shares her opinion or insights about the book that was just perused.

Oh, and I think I want to use a little bit more high-falluting words to develop my vocabulary. :)

So follow me, if you will, on this journey through the wonderful, magical world of BOOKS.