Category Archives: Literature

Book Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Of PoseidonOf Poseidon by Anna Banks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was tempted to give it a 5 because I freakin’ enjoyed it so much. But then, I feel kind of shallow if I give this a five because I had a rule to give fives to books that are with depth or made me crazy from feeling all these emotions I never knew. Well, this book made me crazy but it’s all from giddiness and happiness. I was seriously smiling like a crazy teenager while reading this book. It’s just that it just hits the perfect buttons to make me go squeal in anticipation, in happiness and with Galen’s hotness. Haha! This book rocks so much. I mean, I feel bashful for being so into this story and for this type of stories since I’m eighteen now but, whatever, I can unapologetically like and love what I like and love. Haha!

So if you just want some fluff and a very rewarding read, go read this. Be warned though that it’s the first book of what seems like a series or trilogy or whatever. I didn’t know that when I started reading this book out of excitement. I read the first chapter somewhere and it immediately made me want to read it asap. As in, my grabby hands need to take hold of this book STAT! And so, when I did, I read it continuously and was panicking when there’s a lot more in the story to explore but only a few pages for me to read. Only to discover that yeah, it’s the first book and it was published recently. Which means I will have to wait eons for the next book. I sorta regret reading it now, when the series is not yet complete. But oh well, it was time well-spent so no regrets at all. But darn that cliffhanger! Ugh!

I can’t wait for the next book! And Anna Banks is fast rising to be a must-watch author for me! I love her style of writing. Kudos to Anna Banks for a fan-flipping-tastic debut novel! (For those who read the book, see what I did there? Haha!)

And woah, my review isn’t spoiler-free and it isn’t long and it isn’t deep. Heehee. :D

And hell yeah, mermaids, I mean Syrenas (sorry about that Galen), are the new in! <3

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In the Mail: As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury

Yey! Not so recently, I won in a giveaway hosted by Goodreads for a copy of this book. I was informed of my luck last April 30 and the package reached my country by May 15. I only got to pick it up from the post office by May 24 since I’m so flipping busy. I just wanna share the photos I took of the package. I already instagram-ed the book (what a verb) so yeah.

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So that’s the package from the US! Yey! It’s actually my first time to have a package addressed to me.

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So inside is a canvas bag with the book. I actually love the fact that not only did I won a book but a bag as well. Thank you so much, Archipelago Books!

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Tada! The book! Once again, thank you to the publisher of this book, Archipelago Books, for a wonderful marketing strategy involving a giveaway. And thank you to Goodreads for hosting said giveaway. I am really grateful and I promise to post a review of the book as soon as I finish it.

Excited for another package coming soon!

Accompanying Tweets to The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan: B

babble, v.: I try to cover my fear with words, but the more they come, the more I feel like I’m pulling at threads, not stitching them.

babel, n.: You may be trying to cover your fear with your words, but I can’t see the fear or hear the words; there’s only my own confusion.

bacchanalia, n.: Your party lasts about five hours longer than I do.

bachelor, n.: I hear this word and it sounds lonely and archaic, an errant uncle to the things I want.

back, n.: There is no turning away from the fact that you turned away; the returning must be navigated around that.

backbeat, n.: I can always hear your laughter in the room, a little bit off from everyone else’s, but still enjoying itself.

backdrop, n.: You were so hungover at the Grand Canyon that it was a lucky thing you only had to look down, not up.

backhanded, adj.: “You clean up good,” I say, when you haven’t; “You’re always right,” you respond, when I’m not.

backlash, n.: There are moment I worry I am taking you hostage when I say “I love you.”

backscratcher, n.: “If God didn’t want us together,” you say, “why didn’t he make it possible for us to do everything by ourselves?”

backslide, n.: When you stop saying that you’ll stop, I know it’s started again for real.

backstage, adj.: I love it when I walk in while you’re getting ready, and you’re nervous, as if I’ve never seen you getting ready before.

backup, n.: I kept the profile up for a month, just in case, but after a week, I stopped reading the emails.

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Accompanying Tweets to The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan: A

So you should know by now that I’m pretty much obsessed and in love with David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary as evidenced by my review here. So David Levithan has been tweeting under-140-characters dictionary entries as a supplement or as a tease for the book. I say he’s supercalifreakinawesome to be able to think of tweets still in the boyfriend’s perspective. David Levithan is just the man, yo. And since I love the book so much, I actually copy-pasted every single tweet and decided to post it. So here goes! Enjoy!

abide, v.: It’s not a question of whether our insecurities, our desires can live together. It’s a question of whether they can make a home.

absurd, adj.: You pass out on the couch, a near-infant in an adult’s body, snoring. And what do I do? I love you.

abundance, n.: If I kept index cards of all your excuses, would that say something to you, or would you just make another excuse?

abyss, n.: There are moments when I feel trapped inside my mind, and there’s no way out, and it’s only going to get worse.

acclimate, v.: We know the lobster’s reaction when things are getting gradually worse, but what about when they’re getting better?

accomplishment, n.: That first anniversary, I wrote you a long letter, and all you needed was to see the envelope to become teary-eyed.

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Peonies by Mary Jo Salter

Peonies

Heart-transplants my friend handed me:
four of her own peony bushes
in their fall disguise, the arteries
of truncated, dead wood protruding
from clumps of soil fine-veined with worms.

“Better get them in before the frost.”
And so I did, forgetting them
until their June explosion when
it seemed at once they’d fallen in love,
had grown two dozen pink hearts each.

Extravagance, exaggeration,
each one a girl on her first date,
excess perfume, her dress too ruffled,
the words he spoke to her too sweet
but he was young; he meant it all.

And when they could not bear the pretty
weight of so much heart, I snipped
their dew-sopped blooms; stuffed them in vases
in every room like tissue-boxes
already teary with self-pity.

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Beautiful.

Poem to be read at 3 a.m. by Donald Justice

Poem to be read at 3 a.m.
Donald Justice 

Excepting the diner
On the outskirts.
The town of Ladora
At 3 a.m.
Was dark but
For my headlights
And up in
One second-story room
A single light
Where someone
Was sick or
Perhaps reading
As I drove past
At seventy
Not thinking.
This poem
Is for whoever
Had the light on

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This is for all of us nocturnes. You are not alone.

Book Review: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

I’m just putting it out there that there might be some spoilers in this review. I wouldn’t consider them spoilers because they are general characterization that you might have come across while researching if this book is worth reading. But by all means, I said some things that you might not want to know so don’t read this if you don’t want to anticipate and you want to be surprised. (To those who have read the book, wink wink, did you see what I did there? Haha!)

Dash & Lily's Book of DaresDash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I’m gonna have a David Levithan marathon starting now. Coming straight off reading The Lover’s Dictionary, I was simply amazed by David Levithan’s words. So I didn’t really know that this book was apparently in my to-read list. But now I know that it’s by David Levithan and it’s co-written by Rachel Cohn, which I heard great reviews about even if I haven’t read any of her books. So off I went, downloaded the ebook and started reading it this afternoon, after my numerous tries of having a wonderful, well-deserved afternoon nap proved futile. I had doubts before reading, because, how can a story about two teenagers daring each other be engaging? Or even mature enough? I mean, who would pass off a notebook and do dares written on it by a complete stranger? I cannot comprehend. I was being close-minded so I was gamely and happily surprised that this book I had so undersold to myself for fear of disappointment actually over-delivered. And it just added to the growing exhibit of evidence that David Levithan is growing to be, rather fast I might add, one of my favorite authors in the YA category.

I read some reviews before doing mine, just to see how other people reacted to it. Most people gave it a four, few gave a five but some gave such low ratings. The reason they gave was: it was so pretentious. Dash, the guy, was described by a character in the book as a snarly hipster wannabe boy. He sounds so pretentious and he’s doing that ironic thing too well that he certainly is a hipster. Or okay, to categorize him more definitively, he was a literary hipster I think. Who knows lots of flavors of teas more than boys his age should know and who can verbally spar with anyone. He uses these words we don’t normally use, and not because they’re obsolete words, it’s because they’re the hard words that you don’t really say. So some people were put off with him but I was enjoying him so much! His sarcasm, his pretentiousness, his love of words and all things literary, his way with words more so, and really his way of knitting words together. Plus, he’s snarly. I like snarly fictional guys. Makes for an interesting and great character. Maybe it’s just me but I can totally see Dash and I truly think these type of guys exist. Or maybe I’m just enjoying I Just Want My Pants Back, a show about twenty-something hipsters that their hipsterness rubbed off on me. Ha!

Now, onto Lily. I love Lily. She is overly optimistic and pure and delightful and yet she is the “weird girl” at school. Huh you might say, when she’s the captain of the soccer team. Pretty contradicting attributes but it never felt wrong. The characterization never felt wrong, everything just fell right. Unlike Dash’s literary hipster ways, Lily was smart and also has her way with words though not as adept as Dash. She’s such an intellectual person, and she’s also just a sixteen year-old who’s never been kissed, been under a overprotective family, whose pet gerbil was killed by a classmate’s cat. She’s very easy to relate to, for me, and I think that made me enjoy the book more than I probably should. I get her feelings, I get everything. We can be BFFs, can I just say? Haha!

The other characters aren’t as fleshed out but I must say I greatly enjoyed great-aunt Ida, Langston, Mark and Boomer. Even Grandpa and his crew were lovely. I loved them all. Langston made me want to have an older brother, Boomer to have a friend since childhood, great-aunt Ida to have that cool great-aunt and Grandpa to be this overprotective grandparent. I wasn’t even irritated one bit at Sofia, not because I didn’t view her as a threat (well, I really didn’t view her as a threat), but because she was like this enlightened one. It seems like she just gets everything, in that a mere-teenager-understand-life-and-love-kinda way.

Anyway, as for the book itself, it was written from both the boy’s perspective and the girl’s too. David Levithan wrote Dash’s parts while Rachel Cohn wrote Lily’s. This is not something new yet it was very thrilling to read. Knowing them by how they perceive Christmas, the one despising it and the one reveling in it, by how they speak, how they think. But this is just proof that formula is not always bad, if you use it right. The book was a page-turner for me, as I would have finished it faster if I wasn’t tasked to cook dinner. I counted the hours it took me to prepare dishes, the hours I was forced to be away with these two kids. I generally love the he-said-she-said type of books or movies for that matter because the readers know everything the other character has yet to know. That you know they were so close then and yet so far since they didn’t really meet. That you know that they will eventually meet and you were just waiting for it to happen, to just enjoy that feeling when it finally happened, and more. I was just a bit sad when the book ended because I was selfish and grabby and I want more MORE MOAAAARRR of Dash and Lily. I love them so much and I for once, really wanted them to be together, not thinking at any moment that someone doesn’t deserve someone or that someone is so irritating. The ending was not disappointing and it was rather cute, yet it was disappointing in a way for my heart because I really wanted more of Dash’s snarliness and pretentiousness and Lily’s good cheer. I want to read them talk and exchange barbs and kiss (heehee). I want a sequel! Haha!

All in all, I recommend you to read it! You see, you’d love this book if you’re like me, a sappy, cheesy girl. The one who makes squeaky dolphin noises at moments where your heart is supposed to flutter, giddy in excitement and thrill and happiness. But if you’re not that, well, maybe this book isn’t for you. It dabbles on a lot of topics, yes, the meaning of life and love, some divorce issues, how a family molds a person, but all in all, it’s all about this game “initiated” by Lily, which Dash gamely accepted, that led to feeling up Santa Claus, watching movies you don’t like, to leaving your overly large boot in a club, and how these two sixteen year-olds with nothing better to do, started corresponding and pouring their hearts out to each other without knowing one another. That seems a pretty intense connection to me, to bare your self to this stranger who has no name, no face. To quote Dash: “Why is it so much easier to talk to a stranger? Why do we feel we need that disconnect in order to connect?”. So I suggest you take time to read this book, to get to know these two strangers, that is before they started writing to each other in a red Moleskine notebook.

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Book Review: The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

The Lover's DictionaryThe Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I might be giving this book a whole lot more credit than I probably should but I’m basing my rating for this book on my feelings alone. I think it’s the sweetest and most realistic romance novel I’ve ever read. In equal parts sweet – to the point that I stand up and talk myself out of gushing so badly – and bittersweet, to the point I clutch the area of my shirt where my heart lies below, as if doing that can make that quick shot of pain disappear. Maybe it’s just me but I found the style in which the book was written so different, so brilliant. Moreover, I admire how great David Levithan is in writing this because it really felt like I was reading his entries, and not a persona he conjured. Maybe it is based on his own experiences but the sweetness and the pain and the reality is just too strong, I feel like I am reading someone’s reflections.

It’s not just that. What makes this incredible for me is that it’s written in the boyfriend’s perspective, which I deem fresh since I rarely read books with a male narrator. You must know I usually read YA so there’s that. Additionally, every dictionary entry was quotable. And I mean, everything is quotable. I would love to just post entries in my blog forever. David Levithan has this way with words that makes everything worth a reblog in Tumblr. The wordings are so simple yet when put together, has an impact so huge. During the time I was reading this, I felt lifted up and crashed down and transported to a different world.

You can take this review with a grain of salt, since I am nothing but a mere eighteen year old girl who rolls her eyes at sappy movies yet watches them all. I might be a girl who’s in love with the idea of love and that’s why this appeals to me. But take a chance, and read this book, and tell me if it didn’t reduce you to a mushy pile of goo.

I am not a writer but I will leave you with this quote from the book, which justifies that any words I put together will not be enough to describe this book or how I felt about it, because it’s an experience. Reading this book was an experience and I’d gladly relive it anytime, even right now, right after I just finished it.

“Trying to write about love is ultimately like trying to have a dictionary represent life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough.”

I love this book and trying to write about why I love it is futile because words will never be enough. <3

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Avenue A by Frank O’Hara

Avenue A

We hardly ever see the moon any more
so no wonder
it’s so beautiful when we look up suddenly
and there it is gliding broken-faced over the bridges
brilliantly coursing, soft, and a cool wind fans
your hair over your forehead and your memories
of Red Grooms’ locomotive landscape
I want some bourbon/you want some oranges/I love the leather
jacket Norman gave me
and the corduroy coat David
gave you, it is more mysterious than spring, the El Greco
heavens breaking open and then reassembling like lions
in a vast tragic veldt
that is far from our small selves and our temporally united
passions in the cathedral of Januaries

everything is too comprehensible
these are my delicate and caressing poems
I suppose there will be more of those others to come, as in the past
so many!
but for now the moon is revealing itself like a pearl
to my equally naked heart

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“but for now the moon is revealing itself like a pearl to my equally naked heart”

Frank O’Hara just knows how to touch my heart. Remember Having A Coke with You? Sigh.

A Remedy for Insomnia by Vera Pavlova

A Remedy for Insomnia
Vera Pavlova

Not sheep coming down the hills,
not cracks on the ceiling—
count the ones you loved,
the former tenants of dreams
who would keep you awake,
once meant the world to you,
rocked you in their arms,
those who loved you . . .
You will fall asleep, by dawn, in tears.

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Beautiful. This poem is just so damn beautiful. I already praised it in my mother tongue and it ended up incoherent so I don’t think I can do much here. But, you don’t need me telling you that this poem is so great. Easily a shoo-in in my fave poems of all time.