A Poised Quill: 2016

Review: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
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Honestly, I wasn't blown away. It wasn't finger-biting neither was it profound nor anything relatively close to addressing any existential crisis I've been having. I enjoyed the book, yes, definitely. It was funny; it was relatable; Clay was an absolute delight (he reminds me of Borgy :p), but the adventures he and his friends have gone through in this book are just so...unbelievable. In addition, the "mystery" of the book was so heavily hyped from the start and shrouded with too much pseudo-mystery. When the denouement came, it was so underwhelming.

I realize that this is fiction--I do. However, most of the details are so conveniently made-up. None seemed so realistic (which actually irked me a bit. I would have loved the idea that there really is an arcane 24-hour bookstore somewhere in the world just waiting for my visit). [spoiler] Google's "Big Box" couldn't even solve the mystery of the Founder's Puzzle. That right there is suspicious. [/spoiler] A lot of details sounded awry and lacking research, maybe? I know writers can practically make stuff up, but I appreciate verisimilitude, and at least a bit more truth behind even the smallest details. The resolution seemed forced, uncompelling, and shaky. Everything just conveniently aligned for Clay and his friends.

Nevertheless, I really did had a bit of fun with this book. I found myself laughing or smiling at Clay's genuine personality. People were right when they say that this is a feel-good story, but it just wasn't mind-blowing for me--the same way Paper Towns by John Green wasn't inspiring for me. The difference between those two, however, is that with Sloan's, it's light-hearted and I actually liked Sloan's characters (except Kat, I hated her because she's selfish).

I'm not exactly sure what I feel about this book. I've debated with myself whether I'd give it 3 or 4 stars, so I'm playing it safe with 3.5 stars. :)

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Review: Bird Box

Bird Box by Josh Malerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)

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What's scarier than desolation you cannot see, and destructive madness you cannot fight nor unsee?

This book is bone-chilling and terrifying. Usually, if weekdays are swamped, I finish a book during weekends when there's peace, my favorite chair to settle into, and no internet connection. With this book, that didn't happen. I had to take several weekends, because it got too frightening to the point that I kept imagining creatures staring at me through my windows while I read, willing me to look at them.

This book isn't for the faint-hearted. It's violently graphic, and unbearably maddening. I cannot imagine living life the way Malorie did. Having the freedom of looking at the world and going deranged because of it. Having your freedom to see snatched away from you by unnatural creatures absolutely unaware of the damage they do to the world. The absolute hopelessness of their circumstances was perfectly delivered because this book offers no answers about these lethal creatures--how they came nor what they are, and how to defeat them.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on my Goodreads profile here! :)
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Actual Rating: 3.8 stars
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First of all, I am very aware of the fact that I bought this book four months ago and have read it only now. YES. I am fully conscious of that fact. In my defense, I have so many books on queue; books that have been on my shelf waiting patiently for a long time. It seemed very unfair for my other books to delay them just because a Harry Potter book came out. (No, I'm not weird.)

1. Because the book is in a screenplay format, it became hard for me to appreciate it. It became hard for me to take it seriously. No! I do not mean this in a way to offend or demean the laborious and precise art of screenplay writing! I only meant that I was so used to reading narratives in novels, especially when it comes to Harry Potter. Even the fanfiction I read are narrative in form. So TCC (The Cursed Child) definitely strayed away from that tradition. I was so unused to reading a new story of Harry's life in a format so unfamiliar and...well, trimmed.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review is also found on my Goodreads profile here! :)

I had just spent the majority of my weekend reading the most delightful--and at the same time, heartbreaking--story of a lovable curmudgeon. I consider this book one of my best reads this year. It wasn't at the same level as reading Dark Matter, but Ove's story will stay with me for a lifetime.

I didn't find this book "hysterically funny" as Kirkus considered. I'm not sure if it's because I find it extremely difficult to relate to humorous writing, and so I don't usually gravitate towards funny [or humor-genre] books. Though I still did find myself smiling and chuckling at the funniest moments of the book. More than the humor, the book broke my heart in a hundred different ways. It was a love story between Ove and his wife. It shows how even a physically strong man crumbles in grief. It was a story of unlikely friendship between angry Ove and his jovial neighbors. It was a story of fierce loyalty to a man's principles.

Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide

Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies by J.K. Rowling
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J.K. Rowling
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide by J.K. Rowling
My rating: Average: 4.3 of 5 stars

This review is also found on my Goodreads profile here! :)

Only now have I finished the three Pottermore eBooks. Yikes! Turns out I'm not really good at reading multiple books interchangeably. However, that didn't stop me from enjoying Rowling's collection of short stories! :)

Ever since the series ended, JK Rowling hasn't been shy on releasing new information about the Wizarding World through interviews and tweets. What I don't understand is how people or "fans" are getting tired of it. I know I never will! A lot of people doesn't seem to understand that when JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, she created a new universe. And this new universe will never cease existing. Instead this universe will only grow or solidify as time goes. Harry Potter's story may be complete and have come full-circle, but the world he was written in is incredibly vast and complex. And what Rowling is doing is brushing up the world she painted. The foreground is complete, but she's still working on the background--building an elaborate puzzle to give us the bigger picture. I will never get tired of learning new information about the Wizarding World. I thoroughly enjoyed these eBooks, but out of the three, I've enjoyed two the most.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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This review is also found on my Goodreads profile here! :)
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WOW. ~~Here I am, staring at my phone's screen wondering what to write because nothing I say will justify the sheer intensity of what I went through with this doggone book.~~ So far, this is my best read for 2016. I have been blown away by the magnitude of the bar for science fiction this book has set.

How to even begin to describe this? The closest I get to it is a "science-fiction-slash-thriller." This book got me questioning my existence; questioning my CHOICES in life. I'm not really sure if the few sentences that follow can be tagged as spoilers, but just to be on the safe side, I'm going to tag them anyway. I can't exactly explain to you the book for fear of getting swallowed by the plethora of confusing quantum physics terms, explanations, and theories, but I will try to put it as simple as my limited knowledge on it can offer. [spoiler] To explain it the way the book explained it, imagine the famous Schrodinger's cat experiment. The observer will only the know result of the experiment once the box is opened--and it can only be one of the two possible outcomes: alive or dead. The quantum law states that until the box is opened, the cat is in superposition. Until the moment the observer opens the box and influences the outcome of the experiment, the cat is in superposition, or to put it simply--it is both alive and dead. But that's a cat. What if there is a box that puts a human being in a superposed quantum state with a drug that changes the way the human being's brain perceives reality; a drug that forces us to loose our quantum coherence and collapses our wave function? It opens a gateway to multiple universes (or multiverse). What if it allows access to a multiverse where everything that can happen happened? [/spoiler]

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

THIS IS NOT A CHILDREN'S BOOK. I repeat: this is NOT a children's book! *cries* No matter how innocent the title is urging you to believe, this ish is not for kids. Consider me shocked. Baffled. Disturbed, even. *cries harder*

I honestly did not get the point of this book. Halfway through, I was enjoying it, while getting confused on most parts. I was happy trying to take in as much of the mysteries and intricacies of the world Hawkins conjured, because I was expecting it to make sense--to have a perceivable connection to our world. But the deeper I get into the story, the lesser I understood. The intense focus I was projecting in trying to understand the story and their world waned, until the only reason for me to keep reading was just to finish it, and not because I was still enjoying it.

This book is definitely not up my alley. This is one of those books that I'm not smart enough for. :'( And I felt so bad because I really really wanted to enjoy it. I know, I know! halfway through, I said I was enjoying it and I was hooked! I really WAS. Up until two-thirds of the book, I was determined to give this a 4-star rating. However, it feels so unfair to my other 4-star reads seeing as I did not understand much of what happened on this book anyway. So I danced between giving it 2 stars or 3 stars. I decided to go for 3-stars because I enjoyed some parts of it--the gore, most especially. I was hooked, but when I realized that most of the questions on this book will remain unanswered, I became unhooked. My interest on it went from 95% to 2% (if that makes sense at all).

I just feel a complete disconnect. Maybe I was expecting too much from this book. :( I felt no emotional connection to Carolyn despite the gruesome history she went through. The conversations between Erwin, Steve, and Carolyn are absurd and unbelievable given the situation they are all in. Maybe an explanation--a sequel, or a deeper explanation of Hawkin's "Librarian" world--might dramatically change my opinion. But even so, the fact that this book cannot stand on its own (without a sequel or an explanation) just doesn't seem worth all the confusion for me.

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I did find a few gems within this book:

"Peace of mind is not the abscene of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."

"Her world is very cold, and this is the thing she warms herself over with."

"...faint comfort is better than no comfort at all."

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This review is also found on my Goodreads profile here! :)

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Worth the Splurge: A Taste of Kobe, Japan

I was high on butterbeer, and that delicate rhythm of Hedwig's theme carried my feet away in an intoxicating stupor. I closed my eyes and shook off from the trance. I know the experience will live with me forever, but I need to be onto the next important thing--dinner. :D

Borgy led me to the train station, and asked me where I wanted to go next. "What time is it? Is it still open?" I asked him. He already knew what I was talking about. We've been discussing this place way before we landed in Japan. He was initially worried that I was too tired from fangirling my heart out at USJ, and I might not have enough patience and energy to travel to Kobe. I assured him I'm okay, and I really wanted to have my birthday dinner there. We still had two hours, but I still worried if we'd make it. But faith, he had. "We'll make it." And so began our long train-ride towards Kobe.

A few hours and my birthday will officially end. While on the train, I did a mental recap of my day. The tingling sensation of being inside WWHP (The Wizarding World of Harry Potter) slowly crept back to me. I was away from the place for only half an hour, but I was already missing it--how I seem to have floated the entire day while I celebrate my inner Ravenclaw. An announcement jolted me back to the train ride. I looked at my phone and checked where we were. I realized, we were still at a considerable distance from Kobe. I started to panic. I told Borgy we might not make it--that Kobe was still so far away; that it might still take an hour more before we reach the Kobe-Sannomiya station. Borgy assured me that we'll make it. And after another half hour, we sure did. :)

Alighting the train at Kobe-Sannomiya station, we were greeted with an atmosphere more "business-like" than that of Osaka. Buildings are taller; facade's are sleeker and more modern. There were more people carrying briefcases and dressed in suits. People there walked a little faster--they seemed busier. Kobe is the sixth largest city in Japan and is home to more than 1.5 million people. The location of Kobe made way for it being the busiest container port in the region. It's a center for foreign trade and a metropolitan where cultures of Japan and other foreign countries diverged.

Pax by Sara Pennypacker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on my Goodreads profile here! :)

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

It took me a long time to finish this, I knoooow. Not the book's fault I was busy with other things.

This book is everything I didn't expect!

What I expected:
- Children's book with a very light tone
- More illustrations than words

What I didn't expect:
- A heavy and emotional narrative
- An actual relation to war

Emotional and Esurient at Ebisubashi-suji

I woke up with a feeling of excitement and tugging at me like an inevitable flu is the feeling of melancholy. It was our third day in Japan, the last full day Borgy and I will have before we depart back to Manila. We had no plans for the day. Actually, we never really had a proper itinerary for our Japan trip. All we've decided while we were still in Manila was that we had to go to USJ for my birthday and to eat Kobe beef at Steakland Kobe (that's for my next post). Probably the reason why we've enjoyed the trip so much--we weren't stressed out from following schedules to the dot; we just decided to wing it and went wherever our feet (and our tummies) would take us.

On our third day, after preparing, Borgy and I went directly to the Daimaru department store to have our currencies exchanged to yen. Tip: on weekdays, you can get your dollars exchanged at their post offices. Days prior, we had our dollars exchanged for yen at the Osaka Minami Post Office, since it was just a few blocks from our AirBnb apartment. It was the same post office that directed us to Daimaru when we were looking for a currency exchange on a Sunday when the post office wasn't open.

At Ebisubashi-suji Shopping Street

Dotonbori: An Overture to Osaka

"It's not as crowded as I originally thought it would be," I thought to myself as I stepped through the famous "Doutonbori Street" sign, and unto the cobbled dimly lit street one cold Thursday evening in April. It was half past ten. Some shops were already closed. Their roller shutters lowered down, but their dazzling neon lights shone persistently, inviting late night tourists like us to draw close and admire their impressive signs. A bicycle is casually parked in the middle of the street, leaning on a street light post. No evidence of its owner around, and yet no one is giving it a second look. A few steps within the district, a few more unattended bikes lined a railing. Borgy and I went further down the street, intent on taking in as much of the place as we can.

Dotonbori Street

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review is also found on my Goodreads profile here. :)

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This novel is perfection. Nail-biting in every sense of the word. I have a confession, I read it on my Kobo and upon checking if my copy was complete, I went to the last page trying to check the existence of the Acknowledgement page. (It would suck really hard if upon tapping towards the last page on the e-book, I would find out my copy is truncated). And so I saw a name. :( And I automatically assumed that the name is the mystery in this novel. I was right! So if you are new to this novel, DO NOT in under any circumstances flip to the last page! I assure you though, it did not diminish the effect of this story on me.

Zero K by Don DeLillo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Review can also be read on my Goodreads profile here.

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This book...is weird. I did not find it creepy, but I did find it disturbing (and not in a good way). I found it very strange and incomprehensible. I did not understand what was happening half the time. All the characters keep spouting random thoughts in rote monotone and always off on tangents that it kept me wondering whether they were high, heavily medicated, or just...crazy.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am astounded. I started this book not knowing what to expect; all I knew was it had an interesting premise: Harry August, a kalachakra, one who gets reborn after dying, receives a message that the end of the world is fast approaching, and it is up to him to stop it.

I was so very pleasantly surprised. The first half of the book was good. By the second half, I couldn't put it down.

Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

DNF. I tried. I really did. :(

Made it until the beginning of Part Two. But it got to the point where all structural description became so hard to follow that my mind began to wander and I got completely lost. Remember on my first update that I said that I see it so fascinating, so I kept on repeating paragraphs over and over again because I did not want to miss out on anything? Well, it got harder as the book progressed. Having characters that are so hard to sympathize with, despite their leeeengthy (tedious) backgrounds spelled out for you, made it even harder to push through.

In my humble opinion, I would've enjoyed this book if accompanied with lots and lots of pictures. Given the premise and the outstanding reviews, I still don't want to give up on this book permanently. That's why I'm not rating it yet. Shelving this book to "will try it for another time." Maybe if I can get my hands on an illustrated version, I'd be happier. ;)

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Review: The Translation of Love

The Translation of Love by Lynne Kutsukake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story was so beautifully written and wrapped up. As I neared the end, I was worried on how Lynne Kutsukake will tie the loose ends, but the last four or five chapters gave me a feeling of gratification; a feeling of completeness. (Although I would have loved to know more about what happened to Wada and Lieutenant Baker.)

The book is told in different points of view of key characters living in Japan at the wake of World War II. These characters are neither extraordinary nor historically famous. In fact, they could be anyone from the Japanese masses. And yet, all had their stories beautifully told by Kutsukake's amazing prose. When all tied together, they form one authentic picture of Japan's culture, and a jarring picture of one of the biggest events in Japan's history.

I guess this is one of the reasons why I'm starting to fall in love with historical novels. You know how the history will play out--you've read about it, studied it, or heard accounts of it--and yet the story is still so surprising and unpredictable. You realize that there are so many eyes you can view it history from and still feel varying emotions. Reading historical fiction like this allows you to experience the past through eyes of even the simplest man.

It's also a book of language: of how emotion transcends all lingual differences and cuts across all races. Of how powerful a commodity words are for humanity.

Understandably, it took a while for me to finish this book. It is not a suspense or a mystery novel, and so I did not blaze through it as I would on gripping thrillers. It's not a book that has a prize in the end. It's the type of book that you slowly go through, digesting the philosophical and even the simplest of phrases.

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"..his goal was simply to be a conduit through which words in one language would pass and be transformed into words of another... But once he started working, he came to see that the words were not just letters or symbols on the page. Each word was bursting with emotion. There were the emotions felt by the writer and by the reader, but also by him, the translator caught in the middle, reading secrets between lovers or dark truths shared."

"How should a man live? Maybe there was no answer. How to live? How to be? Just day by day. Going forward. And then? Just live."

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Review: Boo

Boo by Neil Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So rarely do I come across a book so strange and so humbly profound. It's not my usual gore, thriller, or horror, but it held me captive. Each page begged to be read and turned. I never expected I'd enjoy this book, much less love it as much as I did. It is set in a fictional heaven called Town where Boo woke up after dying. As he grows accustomed to living his afterlife, he learns the merits of friendship, forgiveness, and healing--things that were obscure to him when he was still living.

Smith delivered an emotionally-charged book told from the perspective of an emotionally 'challenged/disabled' boy. How absolutely clever is that? Boo might as well be one of the most important books of this generation.

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Review: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When you read this book, expect to be bemused and derailed on most part. That's what you get from reading at the perspective of the lonely but shrewd little Elsa. The fairy tales fused within the story are often confusing, but so Delphic and lovingly constructed, it makes you want to reflect on life after reading any profound details from them. As the story progressed, it became harder to distinguish which are part of the plot and which are part of her Granny's fairy tales. Nevertheless, I think I would've enjoyed reading this story more at a younger age. And it's really easy to relate to Elsa, seeing as we both love Harry Potter and how as kids, we were both different from our peers.

I was willing to give this book a three-star rating halfway through. Like I said, the book was confusing in almost all aspects. But when I got to the end, everything fell into place, and I can't help but feel so ecstatic and undone by the sheer magic and simplicity of Granny's fairy tales and how they continue to help Elsa cope (hence, three became four). I realized, the fairy tales ARE the story. I can't help it, I'm still a sucker for happy endings.

Few of my favorite lines:

"Maybe she was disappointed in you because you're so disappointed in yourself."
"The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people left behind want to stop living..."
"...because the people who reach the end of their days must leave others who have to live out their days without them."

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