Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - The family that keeps me alive are all Dead

It's always a joy to read a Neil Gaiman book! The world he creates for the reader is just exhilarating.

In this book, The Graveyard Book, the world he creates is this graveyard somewhere in Glasgow, Scotland - and the characters you meet are just the ones you'd expect to meet in a cemetery - but in this interesting plot twist - it will take this graveyard to raise a living breathing baby.

Many interesting things happen to the baby as it grows up to be a young man - and that I will leave for you to read - as this is a children's book - and something that you should finish in a day or two.

Every chapter in the book brings you to a different world - as the graveyard is filled with many supernatural beings - from ghosts, to ghouls, to witches - and of course, bad human beings.

There are several quotable quotes in this book - and I admit that some of them even inspired me and gave me zest again in life.

I will try to buy my own copy of the book so I can highlight the words that mean to me the most!

Manuscript Found in Accra: My Book Review

After reading my friend Eden's gift to me, Paulo Coelho's The Spy, I discovered that he had copies of most of his books in our school library so I decided to read this one next - which I finished in just about an hour or two.

I love the premise that he presented in the beginning - it's so seductive and alluring - lost Egyptian papyruses - only to be found centuries later.

Anyhow, for the longest time,I have always avoided self-help books, preferring actual fiction and celebrities I like and many inspiring movies to be my main life guiders - aside from the Bible and what my parents taught me.

And then middle age arrives and while I was reading this, I was also simultaneously reading Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink' and a book on how to harness your hidden genius! I feel like I'm 18 years old again, singing U2's classic "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".

Not everything in this book applies to me though. I love what he wrote about love, and failure - and I agree to most of it. This is a book you can read during Holy Week, when you want to make muni-muni in your life. I will keep a copy close to me just in case that urge arrives.

Book Review: Anna Karenina - A Fitting Book to Read During Christmas

"I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there

are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts." Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina

A proper 'hugot' line if there was one, yun lang, this one was written more than 150 years ago, yet it still sounds appropriate now as it did during that time - especially that many young people have embraced all kinds of love - not only that between a man and a woman.

Anyhow, one thing I failed to notice when I read Anna Karenina in college was that the book is actually a good read during the Christmas season!

Well, there is that adultery story of the book's namesake, but there is an equally powerful story of the other co-protagonist in the novel, Konstantin Levin.

This is not a book for atheists as Levin's character realizes in the end that all his actions were guided by his faith in God - and it's a beautiful message that one can learn once again, especially during Christmas - especially from this novel which delves very deeply on how the aristocracy treated the peasants, the hypocrisy of high society and the double standard between men and women.

The lessons one can learn here I have learned a long time ago - to live your life the way you want it and not as society dictates you to; that even if people tell you that you are living in sin, that you live your life with integrity and honesty; and to treat everyone you meet in life, with respect, regardless of their social status.

Tolstoy's writing prowess is definitely in display here - and the part that I liked is also the most tragic. I love the way he wrote the part where Anna Karenina's characters was slowly going into self-destruction.

It begins very subtly, and then it gains steam and ends up like a powerful landslide, smothering the heroine, quickly. The change in mood was very frightening to read, and if one was not familiar with the story, her suicide would have come as a shock - considering how out-of-character it is from the Anna that we first meet in the first part of the book.

I will go for a more frivolous fiction book after this. My imagination has traveled through time and has been enriched greatly by the clarity of the vision of Tolstoy's characters.

Enjoying Anna Karenina

Now that Du30 is professing his love for Russia, here I am thoroughly enjoying Leo Tolstoy's romp into Russian high society.

The setting may be aristocratic Russia 200 years ago, but the truth is, everything here is as relevant now, and I admit, I am as scandalized by the lead characters' lack of shame, and perhaps, naivete, in pushing her own agenda.

I realized now that Russian high society was even more interesting than the French or British high society - at that time. The class divisions are even more marked since Russia had a big peasant population at that time.

You'd think British or French high society were snobbish? You haven't met the Russians! No wonder the Communists had all of them shot!

Talagang Kardashian, kung Kardashian! These are definitely Kim's predecessors!

Tolstoy is such an expert novelist, everytime I pick this book, I feel like I am one of the Russian aristocrats eavesdropping on the lives of their gentrified set. Feeling ko may moustache din ako and may personal valet, tapos may stable din ako ng horses!

Book Review: Alice Sebold's The Almost Moon

Alice Sebold is better known as the author of The Lovely Bones, and like any other person, when I saw the movie version, I did not read the book na.

Her book The Almost Moon treads on even more delicate territory than The Lovely Bones. It's not really the book you want to read for relaxation since the subject matter involves a daughter killing her own mother, who is mentally ill, and sleeping with the son of her best friend.

That's basically the foundation of the story and the rest is the character's psychological explanation on why she did those things.

It's a tedious read and I've wanted to stop reading it. But since I'm the type of person who finishes what he starts, I eventually ended up reading everything but still, with not much satisfaction or joy.

For Filipinos and many Asian cultures, caring for our elderly parents is a very sacred duty, so to see Western cultures just treat it with flippancy, is something we really can't relate to.

Book Reviews: Patricia Cornwell's Isle of Dogs

Like many others, I'm a big fan of Patricia Cornwell's books on criminal investigation but I stopped reading crime books for a few years now since I didn't want blood and gore in my reading fare.

However, I decided to pick up this book after reading too many war love stories and it was quite a refreshing change. Also, I have to warn you, this is not the usual Patricia Cornwell book as it has some pretty humorous and ridiculous characters - and it paints the state of Virginia and its law enforcement and government as some kind of lameduck establishment.

There are also many caricatures in the characters - from Hooters who has all the stereotypical qualities of an African-American woman - to Barbie Fogg - who has all the stereotypical qualities of an American blonde airhead.

And to make it even more bizarre, Patricia puts a supernatural spin to things - like making dogs and crabs talk - and making one of the killers Unique - assume a supernatural state - making her able to change her "molecular composition" - whatever that means.

It was a fun read although there were some pretty violent slasher scenes. The ending was a bit of a letdown, it was like Ms. Cornwell just wanted things to end Hollywood-style - predictable and without much suspense.

Better to stick to her Kay Scarpetta series if you're a hardcore fan.

Book Review: The Sunday Philosophy Club

To an outsider, it is often difficult to distinguish if one is Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish (for those who come from the Protestant North).

For us, they are all British.

It is only when I started reading Alexander McCall Smith's book on his character Isabel Dalhousie, who is Scottish, based in Edinburgh, did I realize that even if they are British, they are proud Scots as well, with temperaments that are a bit different from their southern fellowmen.

It is always eye-opening when a fiction writer delves on these character studies as well as vivid descriptions of the place, that allows the reader to understand the subtle cultural variances between two groups of people that appear homogeneous to the rest of the world.

Once again, the novel is set Edinburgh, and it's definitely now on my wish list of places to visit in the future! I would love to retrace the steps that Isabel takes as she walks around her favorite city.

Parang I want to borrow nga this style of writing, of using actual street names, and describing actual neighborhoods, this time, supplanted in the more hot and tropical busting city of Metro Manila.

This installment of the Isabel Dalhousie series is more interesting, not only because of the philosophical dilemmas the character presents to the reader, but also because there is a sinister act that happens in the beginning which first, looked like a suicide, but, later on, could possibly be a murder!

That's why I was always turning the page to find out the real score!

Definitely, another agreeable read from Smith!

Book Review: The Right Attitude to Rain

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith brings you to the beautiful city of Edinburgh in Scotland. As you read the novel, the author allows you to be in the city as well, as he describes portions of the city and the pace of life in this capital city.

I will certainly use this book as a guidebook of sorts if I do get a chance to visit this city soon! I could trace the footsteps of the main character as she makes her way in and around her home city.

This is a pretty introspective novel as almost no action happens, and most everything is dependent on the moral judgments and philosophical decisions of the main character Isabel Dalhousie.

The pacing is almost glacial, there would be times you'd be tempted to put the book down, but there are many philosophical musings here that can be used as hugot lines for the more hopeless romantic of persuasion.

Now I understand why writing has to have action and why there has to be antagonists in the story. There is almost no obstacles that bar the way of the main character that the story can be dull and uninspiring, since she practically has everything she wants in life.

However, I plod on reading because I find uncomplicated lives like Isabel same to mine and how I look at life. The less complications, the less drama, the less stress, more happiness. Sadly though, lives like mine and Isabel Dalhousie don't make an interesting read.

Book Review: Maeve Binchy - Light A Penny Candle

Whenever I want a read that's light and uncomplicated, Maeve Binchy is one of the authors that I go to.

That's why I am pretty surprised that Light A Penny Candle was actually her very first novel, because unlike the first few books of hers that I've read, Tara Road, Night of Rain and Stars and Scarlet Feather, this one is the most complex, the most expansive and the most interesting.

The time span is also one of the longest, beginning with two female characters who were just children when World War II started, to the point in the ending when they were almost in their 30s, with failed marriages in the late 1950s.

The study in contrasts is also interesting since one of the girls was English, and the other one Irish - one was Catholic and the other one was Protestant. One is from London, one is from the rural part of Ireland.

Also, it's pretty rare for novelists to dwell too much on Catholic practices, but it's one of Maeve Binchy's trademarks - and she doesn't shy away from it.

Light a Penny Candle is a tradition for Catholics - and many Filipinos do it. In the Philippines, it's more like Light a Five Peso Candle since that's how much each candle is worth - but the idea behind the practice is the same - to pray so that a wish comes true.

A lot of things happen in this story and there are a lot of interesting characters to keep the reader busy. Like most of the readers, I do find the ending too abrupt and too bizarre and a bit out of character and theme but it does shake things up a bit. You'd never find a similar ending in any of her others novels as well.

It is probably her longest novel but I had a hard time putting it down.

Book Review: The Full Cupboard of Life

It's been a long time since I've read the works of just one author over an extended period of time.

When I was growing up, Papa and Mama introduced me to Agatha Christie so throughout grade school, her books were the ones I was reading.

As an adult, there were some authors I like whose novels I'd buy agad when I see them - light stuff from authors like Maeve Binchy and Anne Tyler - among others.

Lately, when Book Sale sold most of the collection of British writer Alexander McCall Smith, ayun, inubos ko na lahat, although I'm not sure if I have all his books in my collection.

Most of his books are centred on this female detective character he created called Precious Ramotswe who is from Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.

The Full Cupboard of Life is the seventh book of his that I've read and the nth one about the adventures of Precious.

It's actually very light reading. I am more interested about how Smith describes the unique culture of Africa and their concepts of community and family. It's also in this book where Precious finally marries Rra J.L.B. Matekoni.

Hillary Clinton had a book called "It Takes A Village" and that title is taken from a concept in Africa that it would take a village to raise a child. It is one of the many beautiful concepts that are truly African in nature - and Smith integrates that into the stories and adventures of Precious.

Book Review: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

I've been shying away from reading heavy stuff for now because I don't want to add stress to my already stressful existence by reading something very serious or heavy. In times like this, one of my go-to authors has been Alexander McCall Smith.

This Zimbabwe-born Scottish author has created a female detective protagonist that would make Africans proud. He has written a set of novels, all set in Botswana, all about the adventures of Mma Precious Ramotswe, a traditionally built African woman who solves detective cases for her clients in Gaborone.

Because of this series of novels, Botswana is one of the countries I would love to visit in the future. I think it's one of the more stable African countries economically and politically. It does not boast of any impressive natural structures but just verifying things that have been written about the country would be adventure enough for me.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Precious finally gets to put a dot into her tempestuous relationship with her very first lover, the wife-beater Note Mokoti. Her assistant, Mma Makutsi, finally finds a husband as well.

A lot of wonderful and crazy things also happen in the story, all reflecting the unique way of life in Gaborone, Botswana - like tracking a van through a desert, or finding out that there are illegal drinking places there as well, and that ballroom dancing is a popular way to meet your next mate!

And that like anywhere in the world, there is prejudice against people who are not locals, like South Africans or Zambians or even the native peoples of the Kalahari Desert!

I have been drawn to reading his books, especially those that are set in Botswana, because the life depicted there is so organic and so different from the urban haze and maelstrom that is Metro Manila.

Yes, I can feel the extreme heat that the book describes, and I'm a bit wary of encountering wild animals like leopards and poisonous snakes. But it's one of those rare novels that feature a place that is not commonly featured by other authors. Only someone who actually grew up there or have lived there, will have the confidence to write about the place and its people and all their unique nuances.

Book Review: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Visiting Botswana is in my bucket list mainly because I've known so much about the country because of these fiction books written by Alexander McCall Smith, who is actually a lawyer specializing in medical law, whatever that is.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is already the third book I've read about Botswana and in a way, because of Smith's insightful description of the country, one actually feels like you are really treading the busy streets of its capital Gaborone, or getting lost in the bush or finding a way to avoid a crocodile while navigating its rivers.

What makes his books special is that the main protagonist is a woman and a detective at that, and a black African! The book has since become a BB TV show and I was lucky enough to catch it in HBO several years ago.

I prefer the books though because there are some nuances that does not translate well on the big screen, since the focus is more on the action, rather than establishing the mood and atmosphere of the setting.

This is a light read and the detective cases are not so complex and actually involves more of reading human nature and the lead protagonist, Mma Ramotswe, knows a lot about it.

Learned a Lot About the Serbians from this Book

When I was vacationing in Europe before, the people that the Western Europeans would always warn me not to socialize with were the Eastern Europeans - the Serbs, the Romanians, the Albanians and the poor gypsies - mainly because they said they were the ones who were bringing crime to their cities.

Sadly, I never did meet one and I felt the distrust, which may have some validity in it, was greatly misplaced, because stereotyping a group of people as this or that just closes your mind to a lot of possibilities. Well, of course, you'd have to use your common sense and if you feel someone is doing something illegal, then better not to be with those people.

This brings us to this remarkable portrait of the Serbian people by the Norwegian writer Asne Seierstad. It's non-fiction and its like my favorite TV show before, The Probe Team, only done in book form. So you have these stories of Serbian characters and how they managed to survive during their country's civil war.

Interestingly, in light of the attacks last weekend in Paris, you could say that these people suffered the same fate but in a much larger, genocide-scale of suffering, since the battle was largely ethnic cleansing, between Orthodox Christians and Muslims who can't seem to live together in peace, so they had to chop chop the former Yugoslavia into so many tiny countries, and horrifyingly, each other!

The 90s was the decade of ethnic cleansing, from here in Yugoslavia to Rwanda, and I wonder, how would you know if your neighbor was of a different race? What if a person intermarried? Would you kill the wife and not the husband? What about the children? Would you chop them into two?

It's really madness and like Germany during Hitler's time, the Yugoslavians allowed a leader to lead them to hate each other. Before this event, they even hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games so I thought they were a stable, progressive country but under that veil was this deep mistrust of each other and the consequences were catastrophic.

Veering away a little bit from the discussion and moving it to tennis, I'm just glad Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic - who would've played for the same country if their respective countries did not break up - were still babies at that time because the truth is, they would've been killed in all that senseless lynching and the world would indeed be a poorer place because of it.

Right now though, based on what I see on FB, these countries are relatively more stable since I see friends posting pictures of vacationing in Croatia or Slovenia. I really hope it stays this way and their days of senseless ethnic cleansing are behind them.

Book Review: Charlotte Gray

Finally I finished this book, Charlotte Gray, tonight while waiting for the US Open coverage. There are books which I can finish in a week, this one took me almost 3 months! There is actually a movie version of this book, starring Cate Blanchett, but I still have to find a copy of that movie.

At some point, I wanted to just give up reading it as parts of it were plodding, but soon as I reached the last two-thirds of the book, I finished that part in just a day, mainly because the action was quick and everything was unraveling very quickly!

I love books about World War II and this one, mainly set in rural France, is even more interesting because it depicts the politics of France during that time and how the people felt towards the German occupation of their country.

I don't think I really warmed up to the main character that's why it took me sometime to finish this book. Sometimes, it's really important that I identify with the main characters or at least care for them, otherwise, it's easy to just lose interest.

It's just good that there are many subplots and other interesting characters mainly the French ones, as the book moves from London to rural France.

Book Review: The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen

I only realized now that with the books I read, I tend to gravitate towards family drama, more than any other genre. I really thought I loved reading about murder mysteries (which I did growing up), but as I got older, I noticed that my tastes have changed a bit - and that a more f**cked up a family is, the more interested I am in exploring their story! (And that's true even in the TV series and movies I watch!)

The Summer of the Bear is pretty interesting in many different ways. The story is set in Bonn, when Germany was still divided into east and west, and since I'm such a big fan of the Cold War, the book offers a glimpse into how it was to live in Berlin, when it was still East and West Berlin - and it just confirms what we have already seen in movies like The Lives of Others.

More interestingly, the book is also set in the Outer Hebrides, these groups of islands in northern Scotland! I did search about the place in Google, and I would love to visit it one of these days. That and the Faroe Islands and Berlin of course!

Anyway, the book is a bit complex since it has espionage and sibling rivalry and a perceived suicide and an escaped bear all in the mix! Each of the characters are given a fair share of character development so you care about all these 3 siblings, their Mom who's free falling into madness and their Dad whose labeled as a traitor by the country he's serving!

And of course, there's the setting. I mean, how many books have you read about the Outer Hebrides! The inhabitants in these islands are characters themselves, really worth the read!

Anyhow, there is a twist in the end which ties up the story satisfactorily. You end up closing the book and wishing that these kids you've read about have learned something about their life experiences.

Caring for American White Trash in Michael Collins' The Resurrectionists

There are certain areas in America that I'm interested in, not necessarily the white, upper middle class America we Filipinos see everyday through our television sets and through movies. They have a colloquial name for these people and I'm not sure if writing it here would make it politically correct.

I am referring to American white trash, white Americans who live in the fringes of their society, growing up in really rural towns, deeply religious, into farming and live in the coldest and most forbidding areas in America.

The central character in Michael Collins' The Resurrectionists fit that description perfectly. Abused as a child, not much affection shown as a young child, he is in essence, a loser in our success-oriented society and he is trying to reconnect to the family of his past from a remote farming in Michigan. I don't know why I was drawn to the depressing atmosphere in the novel, but I kept reading it hoping to find some reason as to why some murders and mysterious fires had to happen during the young life of the central character.

In the end, one couldn't care less anymore. What's important is for the main character to snatch his life back and although it's not perfect (his lover loves another man who is in jail, his teenage son hates him and his guts, and his daughter is apathetic to him), his road trip with his family made him finally realize that he had already ran away from his sordid past, a long time ago.

A Woman Reinvents Her Life in Au Revoir Liverpool

When I first bought this book, I thought it was just one of those romantic stories set in World War II. I was in for a real surprise!

Society has always been more cruel to women who philander as opposed to men - and such was the situation our protagonist, Jessica, finds herself in in 1930s Liverpool. Her mean husband throws her out of their house and takes their 2 children away from her. And worse, the man she slept with - is her mother's lover!! So her mother treats her icily after their one night stand was revealed!

Like any young mother, she almost went crazy without her kids, who were still very young, but slowly, she found her bearings with the help of her younger brother and some kind strangers.

What I love about her character is how she picked up the pieces of her shattered life. Soon, she had to leave Liverpool - since she felt like she was a pariah there - and she went to Paris. Then World War II breaks out!

Her character had to endure many challenges but what was beautiful is that she found herself, she found what her real strengths are, and really came into her own person. When before, she felt like she was just a behind the shadow of her rich and popular husband, now she really knew how to handle a household, run a business and discovered that she was really desirable after all!

While before, she used her husband as an emotional crutch - now that she was alone, she had to mature quickly and find the courage to solve the problems she was facing incessantly everyday.

The war taught her many things about loyalty, love for country, love for thy neighbor, and she really matured as a woman and as a mother.

When she returned to Liverpool after the war, she was now a totally different person than she was when she first left.