Home For The Weekend

After the first week of my acting residency in Cebu, I flew home for the weekend, the primary reason being Iron Man 3.

My high school batchmates planned to watch IM3 together, and I am not one to turn down any chance to see Robert Downey Jr. The movie turned out to be pretty good; much better than the second one anyway. But nothing trumps an origin story, I think. Plus the music in this film was severely lacking and completely deviated from Ramin Djawadi's original musical concept for the first Iron Man. I think that was the only problem I really had with the movie: it didn't have any of the sass shown in Iron Man. The finale was spectacular however.

But the real happy news was when I went to Fully Booked and out of boredom rather than expectation, I asked if they had The Elite (sequel to The Selection by Kiera Cass) yet. Imagine my shock when they actually said the shipment finally arrived. And so I was directed to a cardboard box, and I grabbed my own copy literally hot off the presses.

Then today I spent my morning lolling about Fully Booked at The Fort, and once again, out of sheer boredom, made my way to the biography section, where two books immediately caught my eye.

I am beyond excited to read both these books about two very different daughters of monarchs. This is the first biography I've found about Anastasia that focused solely on her. As for Marie Therese, I've been curious about her since I watched Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, when Kirsten Dunst whispers to her newborn daughter, "Oh, you were not what was desired, but that makes you no less dear to me. A boy would have been the Son of France, but you, Marie Therese, shall be mine." That tender scene is one of the reasons I decided a while back that I would give my firstborn daughter the middle name Therese (the other reason is that I want to name one of my children after my mother). I've never read that much about Marie Antoinette's daughter, especially what happened to her after the revolution.

So now I'm well equipped, book-wise for my second week in Cebu.

49-Day Book Challenge: Day 17, Genre You Rarely Read (But Wish You Did?)

Easy. Classics and biographies.

I wish I was able to read biographies the way I do YA books, but the writing's obviously more sophisticated and flowery, so it takes more time for me to struggle through a chapter. I'm getting better at though; like they say, practice makes perfect.

Classics are a whole other matter. I've tried again and again to get into reading them, but I always end up caving and running back to YA with my tail between my legs. I don't know, they just don't hold my attention the way modern books do. Though lately, my determination to finish a classic has been strengthened by one awesome English teacher, Ms. Ng. Her love for Jane Austen & F. Scott Fitzgerald is totally infectious. Now I've decided to tackle The Great Gatsby. I love the time period it's set in; in fact, the YA book I'm reading now is set in the Jazz Age as well, so you might say I'm prepping for it.

Next question on the list is a tough one to answer: Favorite biography. Decisions, decisions.

49-Day Book Challenge: Day 16, Favorite Genre

I, obviously, cannot pick just one. And so, I'm going to share the Best of the Best--Books that embody my two favorite genres.

***Harry Potter will not have a mention, because, as I've told to anybody who will listen, HP isn't simply a book series for me, it's a part of life. Okay. Cheesy part's over.

***I was going to include Dystopian as one of my favorite genres as well, but let's face it: Everyone loves dystopian books nowadays (The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.) No new news there.

Favorite Genre #1: Fantasy & Fairytale Retellings

Princesses, fictional kingdoms, knights, dragons, oh my. My love for this genre stems from my childhood overexposure to Disney films. I remember growing up watching Sleeping Beauty everyday, knowing Part of Your World down pat, and having one of those castle playsets, complete with a dungeon for the baddies. The best yaya in the world, Ate Rose, loves telling this little anecdote: When I would play my little Disney figurines and the castle, all the Disney villain figurines would mysteriously vanish. My yaya would help clean up my mess, but she wouldn't be able to find them. Finally she would ask me, "Have you seen Maleficient?", and I would promptly reply, "I sent them down to the dungeon." When my yaya opened the latch to the dungeon, lo and behold, Maleficient and her posse all came tumbling out.

Now that I'm a little too old for playing castle, my love for other worlds translated into reading. The number one fantasy series on my list would definitely be Tamora Pierce's Tortall Series.

I remember discovering Tortall in seventh grade, when I was dealing with Post-Potter depression. My friend Tuesday was reading a Tortall book, and she pushed me to try it out. At first I said, "NO. There will never be any other fantasy book that I read. Harry Potter is it for me." She quipped, "That's not what J.K. Rowling would want you to do," And so I grudgingly bought the first book.

The Tortall Math: 4 Alanna books + 4 Daine books + 4 Kel books + 2 Aly books + 3 Beka books= a sweeping saga that spans generations. Tamora Pierce started the series back in the 1980's, and hasn't come up for air since. I have no idea why this series is so underrated, it's got everything: magic, swordfights, knife fights, fistfights, unrequited love, forbidden love, love between two girls, love between two boys, love between a transvestite and a man, dragons, hurroks (half horse, half hawk--think Buckbeak's distant cousin), spidrens (half spiders, half humans), more magic, family drama, princess, castles, all races (from the Japan-inspired Yamani Islands, to the Northern Europe-inspired Scanra), and most importantly, awesome plots.

I could go on and on about Tamora Pierce, I really could. But that's left to say is, get your hands on a Tortall book and your life will never be the same.

-Runner-up for best fantasy books would be Jessica Day George's 12 Princesses novels. They don't take themselves too seriously, but they've still got a solid plot.

Favorite Genre # 2: Historical Fiction & Royal Biographies

You could say my love for one inspired my love for the other. I started off in the historical genre by reading this absolutely beautiful series called The Royal Diaries.

They're fictional accounts of historical princesses' lives. They were perfect for little 7th-grade Salve, just beginning to read past the usual chick-lit fare. That jumpstarted my love for historical fiction.

After growing out of the Diaries, I moved on to Carolyn Meyer's Young Royals books. She's written about the Tudors, Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra, and Mary, Queen of Scots. She is an excellent writer, and I'm just beside myself waiting for her next book, this time about Queen Victoria (one of my favorite royals).

Then, about 3 years ago, I decided to make the jump from fiction to non-fiction. I was at a summer program at Oxford University at the time, and I remember the exact day I picked up my first royal biography. It was raining, and classes were finished, so for lack of something to do, I bought myself a Cornish pasty and went to the bookstore. There was a display table stacked with books about on royal women, and I picked up Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia Gelardi (who, coincidence of coincidences, turned out to be a Filipina!)

It chronicles the lives of Queen Sophia of Greece, Queen Maud of Norway, Queen Ena of Spain, Queen Marie of Romania, and Empress Alexandra of Russia. I immediately fell in love with the five women, their families, and the time period they lived in. You know sometimes, the Tudor era sometimes seems a bit far-off, and it's difficult for me to place myself in their shoes. But to read about queens whose grandchildren are still alive today? It makes me feel closer to them somehow.

Ever since, I've read biographies about Queen Victoria (the author of which I was able to meet at Oxford), Catherine the Great, the Romanov women, and mother-daughter royal tag teams.

That's pretty much it for my favorite genres. Of course, I love other genres: I've been reading more chick lit (Jen Calonita for the win!) and supernatural romances lately, and of course there's always at least 3 dystopian books on my list of books to read. But for some reason, these two genres are closer to my heart.

49-Day Book Challenge: Day 15, What Will Inspire You To Recommend A Book?

That's a toughie. The originality of the plot, I suppose. And how much the book pulls you in--sometimes you're just way too aware that it's a story made up by an author, you know? Instead of believing fully in the world the novel is set in. A novel with a great sense of humor ranks high on my list too.

That's pretty much it. I guess the plain answer is, I'd recommend the book if it was good, no duh.

49-Day Book Challenge: Day 14, What is Your Favorite Language To Read In?

English, obviously. I wish I could give a more cultured answer, like Latin or French, but I'm barely making it reading old-timey English or the English in those biographies that was 500 words per sentence.

Counting My Blessings

Today was a perfect summer's day. I woke up at 7am, popped in a DVD (The Village), read, started on a new TV series (Finally started watching the Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 box set I'd bought 6 months ago), fell asleep again, had a late lunch, then went to Greenhills and made some new friends.

The first friend I ran into was this adorable little cutie--I named her Tanya the Tarsier.

My brother's batchmate and my schoolmate from high school, Marnique, has a family-owned jewelry store, and they sell the coolest little trinkets. I absolutely love animal jewelry, so Tanya makes a perfect addition to my family of owls, peacocks, a snake, a starfish, and an octopus.

Then I dropped by Fully Booked, not really expecting to find anything, when the first thing I spotted was Nameless. My Achilles' heel books are: books with gowns on the cover (Anna Godbersen books are probably gown-cover book royalty), and fairytale retellings. I, for one have never heard of Nameless, but hey, it's got a gown on the cover, and it's a retelling of Snow White.

Then I went to the YA section. I was totally prepared to just give it a cursory glance, when I literally did a double take. There, sitting on the shelf in all its glory, was Jen Calonita's third Belles book: The Grass Is Always Greener.

Jen Calonita is my favorite chicklit writer. And that's saying something, seeing how I don't read a lot of chicklit. Any book she writes, I don't care what it's about, I pick it up, no questions asked. My love affair with her books started in 2006, when she started her Secrets of My Hollywood Life series. What was so great about it was that she actually worked in show business, so her writing was spot-on. Anyway, back then I thought it was a stand-alone book. But 6 Secrets of My Hollywood Life books, 1 book about summer camp (Sleepaway Girls), another about reality TV (Reality Check), and 2 Belles books later, she's still going strong.

The Belles series is set in the South, and it shows the world of Southern belles: cotillions, prep schools, politiicans. Each book is a light, fun read.


So today was an unexpectedly good day. I'm happy, no OCD symptoms for awhile, so that's good.

49-Day Book Challenge: Day 13, Favorite Place to Read?

My Gryffindor-inspired room in our house in Tagaytay is possibly one of my favorite places on Earth. I purposely did not place any electronics there (no TV, computer or iPod dock), so I would get the true Hogwarts feel. A side-effect of that was that it turned into a nice reading room.

The wingback chair above is where I love reading the most. It also has a nice piece of family history attached to it. It used to be found in the den of our house, many years ago. Back then it was this dusty rose, flower-patterned chair. I remember my grandfather sitting on that chair when he used to visit. Then it got too torn and tatty to be seen in public, so we put it in storage. Fast foward maybe 7 years, when we were decorating the Tagaytay house. I remembered the old chair and asked my mom if we could reupholster it and place it in my room. And voila, it turned into Sam's Favorite Place to Read.

49-Day Book Challenge: Day 12, No, I Do Not Massacre My Books.

The next 3 questions on the Challenge list had to do with: dog-earing, writing in the margins, yes/no on writing on textbooks.

I consider those as vandalism.

Hotel Alone

At the Marco Polo Hotel. Just ordered what Taylor Swift calls "breakfast at midnight 8:40 pm", finally allowed to watch Criminal Minds after my self-imposed Lenten Reid-fast, free Wi-fi, new book to read.

Life is good.