A Poised Quill: 2019

Review: Smaller and Smaller Circles

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Borrowing from the vocabulary of the great Stephen King, unputdownable.

This book provides a more than your raw and gritty crime fiction. This provides a shrewd look into institutions--both in our criminal justice system and in the Roman Catholic Church. It is laced in politics and for the first time in a long while, I didn't mind. In hindsight, I realized that you really couldn't write about Manila without getting political. This book served like a slap in the face of our political system and even the piousness of the Church. It's a juicy and interesting take on Philippine politics set in a whodunit. It's layered and multi-faceted. It gives the readers a glimpse at the affluence of the rich marred with corruption, and a jarring picture of poverty deeply rooted in even more corruption and social diseases.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Actual Rating: 3.9 stars
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I have considered DNF-ing this book numerous times halfway throughout. I'm so glad I didn't. The format takes a lot of time to get used to and the different tones adapted by the different characters constantly threw me off-balance. When I was just in the process of getting used to a character's specific way of speaking, a different tone and language will be adapted by the next character. During the first half, it was really difficult to follow. I can truly understand why a lot of readers didn't bother finishing this book. But I pushed through, because however difficult the format was, the story was so beautiful, and the characters were all so interesting.

The entire story revolved around the night of Willie Lincoln's internment, during which President Lincoln visited his son after the funeral. A war had just started, both in the world, and inside Abe Lincoln's heart. The turmoil and grief within President Lincoln was depicted holistically in the book; it was impossible to not get pulled in. Willie's arrival in the bardo became a source of excitement for the other "citizens" of the graveyard. During this night, characters from the graveyard got to tell their stories, and each story was as unique and heartbreaking as the next. I was rooting for Willie, but I was rooting more for Bevins, Vollman, and the Reverend. It was Willie's story, but it's as much as Bevin's and Vollman's stories too. While it revolves around historically facts of Willie's death, the entire book was wholly imaginative and unique, my mind refused to put it down.

I would have enjoyed this story much more if the format followed a more conventional type. But even with how it is written now, it was still beautiful and unforgettable.

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Chasing The Skies Across England

I first noticed the skies on that glorious first day in London. We were walking around Covent Garden, just off of a well-deserved buffet at Mr. Wu after a 16-hour flight. As we were strolling around the Piazza looking for the perfect red photobooth, I looked up to see the sky with nary a cloud in sight. London is notoriously known for its bleak weather. It's "grey-ness" and dreariness. But on that first day, it was the opposite. The skies spilled with my favorite color as if welcoming me home. It was a vast space of perfect seamless gradient blue blanketing the city, the color progressing from electric blue to a muted shade of cornflower. It was akin to staring at the ocean if it were hanging above you instead of beneath you. Back at Ludgate Hill, the cross-topped dome outline of St. Paul's Cathedral poised against the cobalt blue. The English baroque church stood pale and resplendent, with its stonework looking incredibly whitewashed by the afternoon sun.

Drifting Across England - St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral viewed from King Edward Street

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Actual Rating: 3.8 stars
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To be honest, I dived into this book with the wrong mindset. During the first book, I was waiting for a noble and heroic twist to the story--something loud, grand, and thundering. Gradually, I realized this isn't always played out as such in real life. It’s usually a steady progress and manifolds from generation to generation. It's probably the reason why I didn't shed any tear on any tragedy the characters went through. That doesn't mean I didn't feel their pain, but it was subtler than resounding.

This book was not an easy read. A family saga told through four generations and gave me a glimpse of the relationship of Korea and Japan. Much like the author herself, before this book, I was not aware of the Japan Annexation of Korea. This book gave an insightful and educational tale of the state of Korea during World War II and the plights of Koreans in the hands of foreigners.

Dune by Frank Herbert
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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This felt like an absolute chore to read. :( The entire time I was reading it, I would catch myself considering on DNF-ing it. But I felt the need to give it multiple chances and to see it through. I did and I can now honestly, and without bias, say: Nope.

I've enjoyed the first part where their characters and world were introduced--the move to Arrakis and a glimpse of the Atreides dynamics. But the political turmoil being introduced on a very new political system (new in a first-time-reader's mind) became very hard to digest and follow. It became a headache to follow through who is betraying who, and the motives behind the betrayals.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
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I am blown away. A clever book within a book. It offers a retrospective study of the structures and elements of whodunits through the eyes of a publishing house's editor. It's a story and a study all in one volume. It is challenging enough to write one story, but to incorporate another within one is another thing. It shows grit and mastery.

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on my blog: A Poised Quill! :)
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It took me a few months to finish this, but I pushed on. It took a few pages to get used to. The late 19th century writing style is something I was previously unaccustomed to, hence the slow pace, but soon enough it grew on me. The gothic and gloomy vibe laced each novel and short story with deliciously dark undertones distinctive of Victorian England. I soon learned to love the long-winded and detailed narrations, all with the purpose of building up the feeling of suspense and anticipation of the big reveal.

What is it that I loved about Sherlock Holmes? Obviously, his practical application of logic is a gift I am entirely in awe of. But his sheer eccentricity amplifies that which he is best known for: his undeniable powers of observation and deduction. His relationship with the other characters in the novel provides his character with layers. I have yet to meet and read a more interesting sleuth as he. No disrespect to Christie's Poirot who remains one of the first detectives I've loved and is as formidable as Holmes, but Doyle's detective proves more layered and flawed in personality. One which I am more drawn to and makes an interesting read. Sherlock Holmes will remain as my favorite fictional detective.

A few of my favorites were The Final Problem and the stories under The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I will definitely be continuing with Volume II, but I need a bit of rest and space from Sherlock. I need a change of scene for a while before I accompany him and Watson again on their adventures.

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