More Books To Read

I’ve just finished a Patricia Cornwell book called Postmortem. It was my 109th read.  Fast paced and riveting. It’s a crime fiction.

This made me smile. Early this morning I saw the shout-out of one of my favorite authors Richard Paul Evans on Facebook, (we are online friends for a number of years now). His newest book is coming out on October 27 and I commented, “That’s my birthday”. And he answered, “That’s a sign Arlene”. Haha,  I am excited to get hold of it, if I could find a copy here.

My reading list was derailed again. I found more lovely books which are not really lined-up for me to read until the end of the year. The Prisoner of Heaven is a continuation of Daniel’s story in the Shadow of the Wind, Marina by the same author.  I am also looking forward to Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr.  He is that same author of All the Light We Cannot See which won Goodreads Choice 2014.  John Jakes’  The Warriors is also on the list  of my TBR. Pilgrim At Tinker Creek is  a memoir by  Annie Dillard. It will be the first time that I’ll read one of her books.  I guess I’ll start it tonight.

What have you been reading lately?

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Something New

I finally got my badge.  I could still read more this year. Love, love books.

Thank you Goodreads.

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The Last Three

I  am still in the middle of reading How Green Was My Valley,  a  1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn  and I have the last three books lined up to complete my challenge. One of these days I will look for that 1941 movie adaptation in YouTube,.

Well, I’ll be including reading classics this time – children’s classics to boot. The three are all famous stories  in the Winnie-The-Pooh series, The House At Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now  We Are Six.  I read the first book a long, long time ago and these last three complete the four-volume set. They are short, just more than 500 pages in all.

I always find such treasures every year that I join the challenge. A mixture of memoirs, historical fiction, inspirational books, poems  and yes I always try to include classics even if they are for children. There are of course a couple of love stories in between. I’ll probably read Perfume by Patrick Suskind next after I finish How Green Was My Valley.  The former is a horror fiction and magic realism in eighteenth century   France.  This has already been discussed in our book club before, but it’s been several years since I attended a book discussion.

What books are you reading at the moment?

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My 96th Read

I am excited.

I just started reading it actually.

I just want to tell you that it’s a sort of “hello again, here I am finally touching the leaves of your story”.

Can you imagine  it was first published in 1939? A poignant coming-of-age novel set in a Welsh mining town, penned by Richard Llewellyn. It is his first novel. I saw copies of this book several years ago at the Humanities Section of the UST Main Library but I was never curious to read it. It is now a contemporary classic.

And yes, it is my 96th read in this year’s reading challenge.  Right after I posted it on my FB wall, two friends commented:

Read this during my high school/college days. Wonderful book. Seems I lost my copy though. Happy reading, Arlene – Dolly

This novel is so freakin beautiful and touching… truly made me cry – Fredda

If this won’t get you interested, I don’t know what will.

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A Sister’s Promise

The bond between two sisters broken by circumstances beyond their control.

Beautiful.

The sounds, the smells and all textures come into play.

And I wonder why I shelved this for a while in favor of another book which I read in one day.

Renita D’ Silva is quite new in the league of  new authors that I follow. I don’t normally summarize the story when I review a book. Suffice to say, it was told in a perspective of both sisters when they were growing up. They had alternating narratives.  I had another glimpse of India, how the poor struggle to make both ends meet, how arranged marriages are made and such.  D’Silva tells the story in such a way that the words are pure bliss, how poetic. I am posting some excerpts here close to the end of the beautiful book.

“And seeing her son encircled in her sister’s arms, Puja, for the first time in twenty years, gets a glimpse into a future that is unburdened by the follies of the past, but lifted up on the tentative wings of optimism, bright as light percolating into an overcast day and feeding it the promise of the brilliance to come. She breathes in deeply and tastes buoyancy, the soft pink of a tender bloom unfurling cautiously in the caress of spring.”

“We are only human in the end.”

“We waste the little time we are given in this world on immaterial things, not the things that really matter. And then, when it is far too late, we long for one more moment together, a moment which, if bestowed, we will draw out and treasure, a moment in which we will say all those things left unsaid, a moment into which we will cram a lifetime’s worth of good times.” 

I seldom give 5 stars to a book but this is one of them. Wow, 27 books ahead of schedule.

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Conquering Your Fears

91% done! Ayayay 🙂  Did you know that I finished two books in three days? And that is why I missed blogging again. I was quite engrossed reading. I am almost there, nine books more to go before I finish the challenge and that means 25 books ahead of schedule. I read a lot at night. The best way to spend the time before going to sleep. Sometimes, I could consume two hot mugs of tea in different flavors of course. I have Manuka honey,  cranberry and ginger now by Lois tea. I alternate it with the Twinings flavors that we bought earlier.

I had a dream last night but it was kind of weird. I dreamt of riding a ferris wheel, a big one at that somewhere in Tagaytay.   It does exist and is called Sky Ranch, a 5-hectare leisure park south of Manila. I don’t know which is better, Enchanted Kingdom or this one.  I’ve been to Enchanted Kingdom during one of Bank of PI’s family days.  My two kids have been there a lot of times and enjoyed the rides.

The truth is I am afraid of heights  (you may visit the link I posted above,those rides in Enchanted Kingdom). Even a height of 20 floors in our  office before makes my knees shake and wobble.  It still does when I go to places high enough for me to look down. The first and last time that I rode a ferris wheel was when I was in high school.   Years ago when we were still living in Quezon City, we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart during the months of June and usually, ferias in strategic places were constructed and one of them was the ferris wheel.  Feria is a Spanish word meaning carnival or a festival. That dream that occured last night is an antithesis  of my fear. I was actually enjoying the ride. I don’t really know what it means.

Had I finally conquered it?

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Another Family Day

Today, the four of us Josef, Jovy, Mom and I attended the christening of my nephew’s baby. It was a simple but a lovely celebration. Ton’s wife will be leaving for UK this coming Thursday and Ton and Emman will follow in a few months. It’s nice seeing family members again.

This afternoon, Josef tried to sweep the ashes on our rooftop but he isn’t done yet. It’s too big a task for one.  If we won’t remove it, it will harden when it rains and becomes lahar. It might destroy our gutter and downspouts.

I am trying to finish a book called Godpretty In The Tobacco Field by Kim Michele Richardson, a new author on my list. It’s a coming of age story that takes place in a fictional rural Appalachian town called Nameless, Kentucky. It’s a home of tobacco farms, crimes and poverty. I love historical stories like this.  I get so much joy in knowing a place even if it is fictional but the characters seem real. I’m about done, my 10th read this year. It may be a bit predictable but still a good read.

Do you participate in reading challenges? What books could you recommend for me to read? I love memoirs, fiction, sometimes YA books, a bit of fantasy and a little of classics. Any author I should discover too?

 

 

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Three Books In A Row

Take a guess!

I promised myself to blog every day at least during the month of January and I did until the other day.

Bam!

I missed one yesterday. I was again sidetracked reading new books for my Goodreads’ 2020 Reading Challenge. As I have said in one of my previous blogs, I want to read at least 100 books this year, perhaps a far cry from the 150 books I read last year. I am choosing what to read first, start the year right by inspiring myself in the process.

The Law of Moses by Amy Harmon.

Started reading Amy Harmon last year and I am quite surprised about her books. This is my fifth book of Amy Harmon, different subjects except for the two books done in two series. A unique, powerful, intense and emotional story about an abandoned baby who grew up to be an artist and a girl who believed in him despite the odds. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and happy endings. I ‘d like to think this is a love story but there is more to it than just cuddles and kisses, it will tug at your heartstrings. Moses, someone you’ll probably hate in the middle of the story but those redeeming qualities show in the end. Georgia, love her character and her strength, a forgiving soul who just loved.

Noel Street by Richard Paul Evans

Perhaps you’ve read a lot about him here before. He is one of my favorite authors. This is his latest book given by a friend last week. It is the third book in the Noel Collection. Luckily, I have all three. It was just published last November 2019.

How’s this for a start?

Every story is a road. And on all roads there are potholes and bumps, detours and unexpected encounters.

I love those quote in every chapter of the book. It’s another Christmas book. The story line maybe predictable but it was a good read. Done reading it in one day.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

My first book about nature and the first novel by Delia Owens. She writes non-fiction and is a nature writer. I wonder why some readers at Goodreads are not so impressed by her writing. I was though. A coming-of-age and a possible murder. I love the court scenes. I always loved court scenes in books I have previously read. It’s 2018 Goodreads Award Nominee for historical fiction.

Some quotes I like here:

“His dad had told him many times that the definition of a real man is one who cries without shame, reads poetry with his heart, feels opera in his soul, and does what’s necessary to defend a woman.”

“Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”

“Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would. If consequences resulted from her behaving differently then they too were functions of life’s fundamental core.”

Would you believe, I gave the three of these books four stars?

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Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge

Don’t look now but I just joined Goodreads’ 2020 Reading Challenge. Lessened the books to 100 for the year. I am not a fast reader anymore.

culled from someecards

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