Books this May

Well, well, well… Apparently three weeks time is a long enough time for things to change drastically.

For one, though this totally goes without saying, traveling through the International Date Line really does screw you up. I’m so confused right now, consciously and unconsciously. Consciously, I have no idea what day it is anymore and have to rely on my watch for that. Thank God for Digital watches. Subconsciously, two words: jet lag.

Argh!

Yep, that was both of frustration and excitement.

Excitement, because I have plans for the pirate movie of the year, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Is that the title? Correct me if I’m wrong.

Anyway, for those who don’t know or remember, take your pick, that empty interval in my blog was caused my escape from the heat of summer in the Philippines to the cold (in my opinion) of the States. Yes, the States that were united under the name of America. What about your opinion, was a temperature of 10-15 cold? In Celsius of course, in Fahrenheit I wouldn’t be even typing this. Hell, my fingers would’ve probably have fallen off from frostbite.

So should move on to the recap? Maybe later.

I can barely believe the number of books I consumed in those 20+ days… I think the number would be 15? Including the manga.

Not the Wallflower and xxxHolic manga I purchased from PowerBooks, but the ones I bought over yonder in Borders. Man, I love that place, Books, Music, Movies, and Coffee (well, chocolate for me) in one place, still I got volumes 9 and 11, I think, and am not sure about it ‘cause they’re still in a balikbayan box around somewhere, so are my other books. My mountain of books!!! TxT

Let me count what I’ve read throughout the summer… Not counting the manga since I can’t remember the volumes, which I read…

1. Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn – I just picked this up from National Bookstore since I thought the title was intriguing, but merely that it was a lovely book. A political thriller, I believe it was called. And indeed it was, a battle of politicians their little power struggles to have their way. Although a mere battle between those guys wouldn’t be too interesting, actually, the main character wasn’t in any way interested in the politics of his job, I forget how they call it so I’ll put it simply, assassin. The tale of an assassination attempt targeted at him and the venture for revenge had me folding the book in half. Gah… Currently I’m collecting Flynn’s other books because of this.

2. Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella – The continuation is here!!! Whee~ Now we know about the first four books of Becky Bloomwood Brandon, don’t we? Well, her baby’s here to join the party now. When I first saw this on the net, I immediately scourged the bookstores for it, and when I didn’t find it in the Phil, I went abroad for it. Obviously you know that a mere book isn’t the reason for my vacation. The plot has basically the same structure as the rest of Kinsella’s books, but still, what can I say? I still love it.

3. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by (someone) – Oh, I swear, I have to get the name of this author, although I’m quite sure that’s the author’s female. This simply does not do her honor… How can I explain how touching this book was? And I’m not one to get touched by something so easily. But it was… It proves that nothing in life and really be planned and go how you expect to occur. Something you intend for the good of others may end up becoming the worst decision of your life and ruining not only yours, but the lives of the ones you love as well. God, this was a great book the only downside was that it was so descriptive… You know, so descriptive that it became boring in some parts? Yeah…

4. Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin – At least that’s what I think her last name was… Damn my forgetfulness. How can you fall in my fiancée?! Imagine that. The twist is, we are seeing it from the point of view of the bitch fiancée stealer, except that she wasn’t the bitch, the engaged “best friend” was. Interesting twists and turns and a lovely ending. Gotta get my own copy of this.

5. Something Blue by Emily Griffin – Same author, same plot. The sequel, get into the mind of Darcy, who constantly gets her way. She actually sounds like someone we’d hate in real life, the way she’s portrayed in the first part anyway. Watch her change along with the development going on within her.

6. Empress Orchid by (someone) – Not the same someone from before, but another one. It actually reminds me of Memoirs of a Geisha. Except that it’s Chinese. And Orchid was one of the main concubines. And a lot of other stuff. But there was enough in common to draw an association between the two. Personally, I enjoyed it pretty much as much the Memoirs, except for this peeve of mine for the book. It translates many of the names into English, like Orchid, I don’t even remember her real name as it was only mentioned in passive. The descriptions she applied though were amazing that I could practically imagine it.

7. The Last Empress by (someone) – Same someone as above, same description applies, except there’s a delightful development of plot here. Did I mention that Orchid was based on the actual last Empress of China?

8. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by (someone) – You can tell that this is a different person right? I admit that I haven’t finished reading this yet, but I will. It’s just the old English gave me a headache. I hate old English.

9. Helen of Troy by Margaret George – Ah, Greek Mythology… It’s been a while. Really, great book. It portrays Helen, from her eyes instead of from someone else’s, you can read how she may have felt when this or that happens. You get some wonderful insight on the woman she may have been. The research she put into this thing really impresses me, it add so much more color to her story. I remember when I first saw this book in PowerBooks when I was browsing, I loved the cover then, but in this hardcover version, I really don’t appreciate it as much as I did the previous one. It’s amazingly long, 600+ pages… At least I’m already halfway though.

Aaand… I believe that there’s another book in between Confessions and Helen, but I cannot recall it. Not too impressive for one month… Well, two actually as I started Consent in April but read it irregularly… That sucks, but oh well… Books… $280+ For everything else there’s MasterCard.




I know it’s Visa, but I don’t use Visa, but MasterCard.


The recap, cars, and all the other things I bought will come in another post.