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Flail Friday: Notes by Sofia Coppola I saw this lovely book at the Union Church of Manila's Library, written by the mother of Sofia Coppola. It's her memoir from their time of shooting Apocalypse Now in the Philippines, and filled with lush descriptive prose (never too self-indulgent, never pretentious) that made me see my country in a new light.

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What I'm Reading Wednesday: Food Rules (an eater's manual) by Michael Pollan, illustrations by Maira Kalman and An Illustrated Journey by Danny Gregory

These two books make me very happy. Food Rules was originally Php895 but I got it for only a hundred pesos. It was the last copy, and was hidden under other books and I whooped out loud when I found it. I'm a huge Maira Kalman fan and this was a pleasant surprise. It pays to rummage and crouch and contort your body to reach nooks and crannies during book sales. That other book, An Illustrated Journey, was a splurge. I love Danny Gregory and his books, so I wanted to add this to my collection. I saved up for it and was hoping I'd find it in Basheer Graphic Books in Bras Basah Complex, Singapore (great bookstore!) and there it was! I didn't mind shelling out my savings for it. I'm savoring it very slowly, and taking notes and spazzing. Artists share their reasons for keeping a travel journal and the materials they like using. I love reading about the insights of the artists regarding travel sketching, something I like doing (even if I'm not any good at it). My favorite would have to be that insight about sharing a piece of yourself to the audience when they take a peek at your artwork and them giving back in the form of a story, a tip or words of wisdom. Great investment. No regrets!

Posted by rainbowramareads

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Flail Friday: Rollin' with Rollins

I'm a big fan of James Rollins. It wasn't always... Let me tell you how it started. Here's me in the bookstore: I can't not browse the shelves, I just can't. Even if I knew what I specifically came in for, I end up browsing the shelves anyway. So one time, I was browsing (started in fiction, working my way through the genres and then the alphabet of authors names...) and ended up in the Rs. I remember I was looking for a particular author, couldn't find him and ended up facing a shelf-full of Rollinses. Picked one at random and it was all about a secret order who wanted to rule the world and opposing them were an elite group of military scientists. Oh, and there was also a shadowy group of assassins, as well as ancient relics and legends, etc etc... It sounded promising so I bought it. That was The Judas Strain, which I found out later was the middle book in his Sigma Force novels. They're not exactly a series; more like novels about the adventures of this crack US scientific military team. But if you're a completist like me, you would notice that there was an order to the adventures. So after the first book, I went back to the bookstore and bought the first book in the series. Ended up devouring the entire series in maybe two months. He also has another set of novels which are standalones. Devoured those too.

His latest in the Sigma Force novels is The Eye of God (pictured above), which I'm reading now. Why do I like him? Admittedly, he's lowbrow. None of his novels will ever win the Nobel, or the National Book Award or any of the elite literary awards. But you know what? That's fine. He traffics in the stuff that I like: ancient legends, a bit of history, scientific facts that he expertly blends into a compelling narrative. It's entertaining, it's fun. And if it makes me forget about the world I am in for awhile, then that's fine with me.

Submitted by Terrie

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What I'm Reading Wednesday

I am currently reading 3 books. :D One is Demian by Herman Hesse, Darkborn by Alizon Sinclair and Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I don't have much time to read so they end up piling up.

Submitted by unnamedking

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Flail Friday: A Kiss Before You Go by Danny Gregory, and more books from my wishlist

This book has been on my wishlist for the longest time, being a huge Danny Gregory fan. Surprise, surprise, a tres generous and kindly fairy godmother sent me a copy yesterday, along with these two other items in my booklust list. Merci beaucoup!

I finished it in one sitting, I did not want to put it down. It was so heart-wrenching, poignant and beautiful at the same time. It makes you question your existence and what you hold dear, and reminded me of the resilience of the human spirit. I also got these two, books from my favorite authors/artists, which made me believe that this really is the year of wonder and magic, because I named it such:

Thank you so much again!

Posted by rainbowramareads

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This Is A Great Place for Reading Thursday: Estrellas de Mendoza Playa Resort, Batangas

That's the view from where I was sitting, cradling The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and secretly wishing time would slow down so I'd have more time to savor the book with this view.

Posted by rainbowramareads

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This Is A Great Place For Reading Thursday: Casa Rap, Batangas

Technically, it's a resto though. But a friend is right in calling it "charming". From the footpath embedded with handmade leaf-shaped stoneware to the edible flowers in your salad, the place is inviting you to slow down and relax. Perhaps savor a good meal, a good book, and bask in the wondrous generosity of nature.

Posted by rainbowramareads

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Foodie Friday: Comfort Food

There's nothing like pairing food with a nourishing read. When my wallet's particularly sad, I prepare myself a simple sandwich for dinner, and trick my appetite by eating it while reading a foodcentric piece of literature. I reach for MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating when I want to feel like a gourmet, but tonight I wanted something more soothing. I was not fond of fish (quite sad if you grew up in Malabon), but I knew I needed to eat some for health reasons, so I opened a jar of spanish sardines in olive oil, got some wheat bread, slathered the bread with creamy sweet Queensland butter, and toasted it. When it was done I placed the sardines atop the toast, drizzled it with apple cider vinegar (to minimize suya), sprinkled it with parmesan cheese and  freshly ground pepper. Then I proceeded to read this book, which made me crave tinola and surprised me with what people consider to be their "comfort food". I personally associate comfort food with nostalgia, and the book inspired me to list down my favorites. 1. Homemade Milo dinosaur: I miss the old Milo, it seemed to have larger chunks before, unlike the powdery version now. I would put three spoonfuls of Milo in a glass, pour water on top of it and stir it vigorously. Then I'd place several cubes of ice in the glass and then top it again with several spoonfuls of Milo. I'd enjoy the Milo shrapnel while watching Cartoon Network late at night. I usually did this when I felt hungry in the middle of the night or when I felt anxious. I remember how my dad used to wait outside the classroom with my thermos filled with cold Milo when it was my first day in school, back when I was in grade one. The other kids were crying (one was even throwing up red Jolly spaghetti beside me) and I cried too (because of peer pressure mostly haha), and I was allowed to go outside to my waiting dad and drink Milo when my crying caused me to have a hard time breathing. I remember playing at my cousin's house after lunch, bringing my thermos filled with Milo and placing it inside their ref. We were forced to sleep but we didn't, and we pretended to close our eyes whenever an adult would check up on us, but we'd continue playing with our Romnick Sarmienta , Sheryl and Jennifer Sevilla Barbies when they left the room. When it was waking time I'd rush to their ref and get my Milo, now cold. I love the plasticky smell of the thermos while I gulped the drink, awaiting the chocolatey sludge at the bottom. 2. Boiled corn: They sold it at school, in a cup, with bright orange cheese powder and margarine. I tried recreating it using popperoo cheese powder but it didn't taste as good. There would be several ways of enjoying it at home: My lola would roast corn on the cob using our gas stove, piercing it at the end with a knife or a fork and twisting it till the kernels turned black. My tita would prepare a dipping sauce of calamansi and patis and she'd dip each kernel into the sauce. My mom and dad would smear butter on it. If I felt lush, I'd do the same, but if I missed my tita I would dunk my cob in a platito filled with lots of calamansi juice and a dash of patis. 3. Suman: Always present during our Noche Buena feast, I looked forward to eating this with mangoes and sugar, or with halayang ube. During Christmas morning, my mother would fry some of the leftover suman in a pan with browned butter and I'd gobble up the sticky sweet treat with leche flan (if someone gave us a tin that year--we never cooked leche flan, for some reason). 4. Leche flan: This was in my bucket list of food items to cook. I love anything with leche flan, and for my 18th birthday I was sincere when I requested my lola nanay to cook a bucketful of leche flan for me as their birthday gift, which they thought was a joke, sadly. I attempted to cook it using an electric steamer and it was such a gloopy disaster that I swore never to cook it again. My lola nanay's leche flan was dense, rich and infused with dayap rind. There was a time when the leche flan atop Razon's halo-halo was like that, and I'd order an extra sliver because it was so good. I ate it slowly, a miniscule bite each spoonful of halo-halo, and did not mix it because I have this crazy fear that I won't be able to taste the flan when mixed. I still can't forget that episode of Sabrina the teenage witch involving a giant flan. That was AWESOME. 5. Ice cream: If my memory is to be trusted, there was a Magnolia house along Edsa across our school and I can still remember the red curtains, the high stools and the colorful menu with the Bert and Ernie banana split. I was taken there just once by my dad when he fetched me from school and I was so overwhelmed by the choices and how whimsical everything was that I can't remember what I ordered, for the life of me. Remember those Magnolia ice cream sticks that are clown-shaped (choco banana), and boat-shaped (bubblegum)? How about that dip cone from mamang sorbetero with that choco shell (a bit sour) that hardened? I remember being sick and having no appetite at all, (except for ice cream) and how wonderful it was for I was allowed to eat rocky road for several days. I enjoyed having my teeth extracted because I was allowed to have twin popsies afterwards. In high school I'd brave the dark seedy Victory Terminal in Caloocan because they had a small Rustan's there which sold pints of Arce Dairy ice cream. I'd save up for one pint in every two or three months and savor each spoonful at home while reading, utter bliss. I'd eat just a few spoonfuls so I could prolong the experience to more than a day. We'd buy ice candy plastic and try to imitate the sold ones but failing because of having only orange juice powder or Milo in the house. My memories of travel often involve ice-y products. Remember Tivoli ice cream and Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches? I guess the ice candies (2 pesos for the Milo one with munggo, 1 peso for avocado, buko, melon, mango), frosties, ice cream sticks, ice buko and fruit salad sticks fall under this category too. Cold sweet hugs. 6. Pastillas: Condensed milk and powdered milk, when mixed together, will give you a quick "pwede na" pastillas. I spiked some with Milo, some with coffee and rolled each ball in sugar. The best memory I have of pastillas involves being sick with asthma and having my dad give me a pasalubong of a mixed pack from Goldilocks which had the usual white one, and yema and ube variants. It was a very happy day for me. My personal favorites are those from Mr. Moo, Zambales and Pampanga. 7. Mom's chicken and pork adobo: This is what I requested for my birthday last year, which thankfully, I got a tupperware of. I could never recreate this, even if I follow her recipe. Hers is perfect: Garlicky, savory goodness, made rich with liver. The taste of home and of family lunches together, or dinner while watching The Simpsons or 3rd rock from the sun. Lazy, carefree Sundays. 8. Black Gulaman: I was the gulaman slicer. While waiting for the water for the arnibal to boil, I'd slice the gulaman blob into circles, then hack the circles into cubes. My love affair for gelatinous things is probably rooted in this relaxing ritual. 9. Mangoes: While my father peeled green mangoes, I'd open a jar of Barrio Fiesta or Golden Hands bagoong, fry it in a pan with golden brown garlic, and add teaspoonfuls of vinegar (careful not to mix it before it boils) and sugar to the mixture. Our house would stink of bagoong for days but we didn't mind. I would pretend that the mango half I was eating was the one from school, and I'd top the whole mango cheek with the bagoong and nibble it slowly. 10. Lugaw: I'm not sure if the store is called Lugaw ni Ogoy but it's always a nice surprise when my dad or lolo brings home several orders of lugaw, tokwa and lumpiang prito from there. We'd customize our bowls with toyo or patis and calamansi, and enjoy the hot soothing bowls with sweetish sour fried tokwa. We joked among ourselves that our lolo would bribe us to go to our church (We're Spiritists and we have what we call "Sentro") using lugaw and halo-halo. True enough, my memories of  going to Sentro always involved a stopover at this old lugawan, with the meter-long bangkos and dirt floor. I'd watch my lola pour a glass of cold water on her lugaw so it would cool up faster, while I burned my tongue because of my eagerness.   What do you consider as your "comfort food?"

Posted by rainbowramareads

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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson I keep on stopping every few paragraphs because there are so many beautiful passages here that I’d like to commit to memory, such as:

We always think the thing we need to transform everything — the miracle — is elsewhere, but often it is right next to us. Sometimes it is us, ourselves. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance. A book is a magic carpet that flies you off elsewhere. A book is a door. You open it. You step through. Do you come back? So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language — and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers — a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn’t a hiding place. It’s a finding place. Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines. What they heal is the rupture reality makes on the imagination.

I do not want to finish this book yet.

Posted by rainbowramareads

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Flail Friday: Seven Roald Dahl books in one go! 

Once upon a time, I chanced upon seven Roald Dahl books in Booksale. The kid in me was very happy that  day.

submitted by: ohdelay

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This is random: Painting book covers

This book cover fascinates me because I feel the people staring at me (probably thinking I'm a bit of a perv) when I read it in public places. It's mysterious and sexy and intriguing, and the book is by Winterson, so it's quite perfect. Spent this rainy day trying to paint it.

Posted by rainbowramareads

P.S. This is a new section, if you want to share something book/reading related, or if you're feeling rebellious and just really, really want to make a post but it's not that "day" yet. Hello to all the new members/followers! :)

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Flail Friday! Matchbook.nu

Here's a pretty interesting site. Matching bikinis with books. Check it out here.

Submitted by rainbowramareads

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Stupendous Book Cover!-Saturday: Book Shelf Display at Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street

I fell in love with these wonderful black and white book covers of various titles. I spy Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Last Orders by Graham Swift, Dirt Music by Tim Winton and All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.

Submitted by Allie

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Man I wish I wrote this Monday - The Endless String of Consequences

We had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth. There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is useless.

-John Green, Looking for Alaska

Submitted by weareviolet

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This is a great place for reading Thursday: Sitio de Amor, Laguna

As nature-y as it could get. Bonus: You get to listen to birdsong while you read.

Posted by rainbowramareads

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Show and Tell Sunday: Anvil Warehouse sale

Checked out Anvil's warehouse sale and nearly hyperventilated (or I actually did). Books for as low as Php1! Carried two huge crates and came home with 36 books which only set me back Php260. Got the Nick Joaquin books for only Php5, slightly damaged, but still readable. Read more about the sale here.

Posted by rainbowramareads

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What I'm Reading Wednesday: Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg

Goldberg wrote books about helping writers defeat writer's block, often through simple yet exciting prompts. My Goldberg books have post-it tentacles because I mark exercises I find interesting, and that's almost the entire book.

This is why I'm delighted to find this Goldberg book in Booksale, for only Php25, filled with post-its of various colors (predominantly gray and yellow--have you ever seen gray post-its before?) used by the previous owner as markers. Since I'm a post-it and ephemera fan, consider me ecstatic. How serendipitous is our post-it connection?

At the back is a curious summary: "a journey of awakening from the profound sleep of a suburban childhood", which instantly brings "memoir" and "spiritual journey" to mind, so this seems pretty awesome to me.

Also at the back, a memorable quote from inside, I presume: "Every moment is enormous, and it is all we have."

Posted by rainbowramareads