Revolution

Revolution by Jennifer DonnellyRevolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Number of pages:  472
My copy: hardbound, Christmas gift from KD

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

* * *

I read and loved Jennifer Donnelly’s A Northern Light earlier this year, and I looked forward to reading her second (?) YA novel, Revolution after I got a taste of her writing prowess. There were only two things that stopped me from reading it: (1) I still shy away from historicals and (2) the book looked so daunting with its size and length. I didn’t think I would be able to read it for Required Reading last month as I’m jet-setting all around, but I’m really, really glad I found a way to read it!

Andi Alpers is an angry girl. After her brother’s death, everything in her family fell apart and all Andi could think of is thoughts of suicide. When her school calls her dad with a threat of expulsion, he brings her to Paris for her winter break to work on her senior thesis. Living with her dad’s friends, Andi finds a diary hidden in the guitar case given to her. There she meets Alexandrine Paradis, an girl who lived two centuries ago who dreams of being a popular actress but whose life is forever changed when she meets a young (and doomed) prince of France. Andi finds comfort in Alex’s diary, until a night at the catacombs of Paris brings her face to face to what just Alex was going through.

Like I said earlier, Revolution looked daunting because of its length — the table of contents lists 80+ chapters! I was kind of worried that I didn’t have much in me to invest in something this long. However, I found that the book was extremely readable. I was never bored with any chapter, and it was really more contemporary than historical. Andi’s anger and grief radiates through the pages, and I felt really, really sad for her. I think out of all the books I’ve read with grief, this book had the rawest and angriest form, and the first time I read about someone willingly self-destruct because she couldn’t find the strength to face the days living with the grief.

Despite that, I found Andi’s anger and her going around a little too tedious, and it took a long time before Alexandrine was introduced. When she was, however, I found myself stuck further to the pages. I found myself engrossed in Alex’s diary just as much as Andi was, and even if I knew how it would probably end, I felt the same fear and longing for the story to end differently, for the Alex to make it through.

I think a reason why I loved this book more than I thought I would was because I was actually in Europe while I was reading this. The moment I got to Paris, I was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and the familiar names that I was just reading in the book. Bastille, Palais-Royal, River Seine, Eiffel Tower, Sacré-CÅ“ur. The book definitely came alive to me because I was at the setting, and I could imagine Andi running through the streets of Paris in the cold, playing in the park. I can imagine Alex in Palais-Royal performing some songs for money with her guitar (I think she’d be awesome on piano, too, pounding away on piano benches) It was such an awesome thrill to see the places I only read about with my very eyes. It was just too bad I had no time to visit the catacombs. :D

The ending, while it was wrapped up nicely, was just a tad too unbelievable, especially with the seemingly time-space-warp thing that happened. Still, I think Revolution is another solid book from Jennifer Donnelly. It’s intense and gripping and wonderfully colorful despite its bleak atmosphere. Music lovers and historical fiction fans should definitely pick up this book, but if you’re neither and you like contemporary YA novels, then you may enjoy this one very much, just like I did.

Rating: [rating=4]

Other reviews:
The Guardian
Love YA Lit
Steph Su Reads

Libros, Livres, Bücher

One of the many things I was looking forward to with my big trip a week ago is visiting bookstores in other countries. I got the idea from Janice, who took lots of awesome book-related vacation photos from her cruise early this year. Then I got the idea from Chachic to get a foreign edition of some of my favorite books like she did on her trip to Bangkok (more about this in a later post).

Unfortunately, almost all days of my trip had a full schedule, so I had very limited time to visit book stores until the end of my trip. That, and apparently I was the only one who was totally crazy about books in our group. Oh well. I was still able to go to some bookstores, but just not in all countries that I went to. I still managed to take a ton of photos though and behold, I share them below! (Warning, photo dump!)

I decided to bring my Kindle to my trip instead of other books so I won’t have to lug extra stuff in my suitcase (and have room in case I decide to buy books overseas :D). I started reading Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly on the 12-hour plane ride from Manila to Amsterdam. I just had to highlight that line. :D

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly – on my Kindle

This was the first bookstore I saw in the Amsterdam Schiphol airport:

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

I didn’t have time to go to it, though, since we only have an hour layover before our flight to Madrid, and we still had to look for our gate.

On our first day in Madrid, after the WYD Day 1, I spotted this sign along Gran Via:

Along Gran Via in Madrid, Spain

I’m pretty sure that means “Bookstore.” :)

Like I said, I wasn’t able to visit bookstores much until the last day because of all our activities and other non-book-related shopping (clothes, shoes, souvenirs, buy step stools), so there’s not too many photos of it while we were at the height of our trip. Oh, but I spotted this independent bookstore near our host home one night as we were on our way home after dinner:

Libreria!

Sorry for the blurry image, but the glowing sign there says Libreria, which, incidentally, is also the name of the bookstore in Cubao X where we Filipino Book Bloggers love to hang out. I was supposed to drop by here on my last day of Madrid, but alas, I arrived during siesta time, so it was closed. And I had no time to go back. :(

Continue Reading →

Graffiti Moon

Graffiti Moon by Cath CrowleyGraffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Publisher: Pan MacMillan Australia
Number of pages:  244
My copy: paperback borrowed from Chachic

“Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers.”

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

* * *

The good thing about having book-lovers as friends here in the Philippines is despite the lack of availability, when someone manages to acquire it, it’s easier to borrow instead of finding a way to buy it. That’s what my book friends and I are doing now, especially for hard to find/buy books such as Aussie YA books. :) Thanks so much to Chachic for letting her copy of Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley (and her other Aussie YA books) go around.

Graffiti Moon, US edition

Graffiti Moon, US edition (to be reased February 2012)

In Graffiti Moon we meet Lucy, who’s about to graduate high school. We find her rushing after she receives a message from her instructor, rushing to meet Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose paintings have touched Lucy’s heart and made her feel an instant connection. Then her paths cross with Ed, the last person she wants to see because of their unfortunate shared past — but he knows Shadow. And he can bring her to him. What follows is a long night full of heart-to-heart conversations, graffiti art viewing and a possible breaking-in and stealing. Lucy realizes that Ed isn’t so bad and their shared past may just be a misunderstanding…but if she finds out who Ed really is, will she still think the same?

People often compare Graffiti Moon with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and it is an accurate comparison. What music is to Nick and Norah is art in this novel. I am not an artist, so it was kind of hard for me to imagine how Shadow’s graffiti pieces look (seriously, I can only imagine them as crudely drawn images because they’re from spray paint cans, but I’m pretty sure they all look better than what I can imagine). However, I liked that this book was relatable enough even without much art knowledge. I like it when a story makes use of a magical night for two people — magical in the sense that they end up spending it together and realize that their preconceived notions about each other were all wrong, or at least, inaccurate. I liked that there was a lot of conversations done in this book that made the characters get to know each other, and it wasn’t just love/crush at first sight and then followed by intimacy the next second.

Personally, I didn’t like Lucy at first. I found her fascination of Shadow and her belief that she will fall in love with this person because of his art kind of annoying and unrealistic. Color me jaded, I guess. Or maybe just…eh, unromantic? Maybe it’s the teenage idealism of love that got to me. I ended up liking her after some time, though, especially after she had more conversations with Ed. Even if it was all in the span of a night, it was still filled with conversations and shared adventures, and not just eye-contact and an “amazing” kiss that would make them declare their love for each other “forever and ever”.

But as much as I liked Ed and Lucy in this book, my real favorites are Leo and Jazz, Ed’s and Lucy’s best friends. I guess it shows how much I am more of a sucker for words than for art, seeing that Leo is a poet. My favorite piece from all of his works in the book:

Almost

Your jokes kind of make me laugh
And your hair is faintly close to being cute
Your smile isn’t half bad, either
You know, I almost, almost kind of like you

The dress you’re wearing is short and sweet
And your boots are kind of cool
You’re not, not turning me on
You know I almost, almost kind of like you

The way you dance definitely isn’t stupid
I could maybe get used to the way you move
I’m not saying I’ve made up my mind
But you know, I almost, almost kind of like you (p 164-165)

I swear, Leo and Jazz are practically begging for a spin-off. Can I request for one, please?

Graffiti Moon will be released in the US by February 2012, but an e-galley of the book is available in NetGalley, so if you can’t wait, sign up and get it! I still like the Australian cover of the book, though. And speaking of covers, look what I spotted in Madrid while I was bookstore hopping:

Graffiti Moon in Spanish :)

Graffiti Moon in Spanish :)

It took me a while to translate the book title, and if I hadn’t seen the insides with Lucy/Ed/Poet headings, I wouldn’t have recognized it. :)

Graffiti Moon is charming. It’s one of those books that would leave the reader smiling, not because of a neatly-wrapped ending, but because of an ending full of possibilities. And possibilities are always good, right? :)

Rating: [rating=4]

Other reviews:
Chachic’s Book Nook
Book Harbinger
inkcrush
Irresistible Reads
Persnickety Snark

Filipino Readers Make it Social!

My blogger friends have been posting about it since last month, so this is a late post…but you know what they say: better late than never! I christened the months of August and September as “book months” because of all the bookstores that go on sale during this month. It’s changed this year but around this time, all major bookstores in the country go on sale, and all of the sales culminate with the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), where I have been known to go crazy a couple of times because of all the books on sale in one place. :)

There’s more reason to be excited for this year’s Manila International Book Fair because of this:

The 1st Filipino Reader ConferenceIt’s the first ever Filipino Reader Conference! It will be on the first day of the book fair, September 14, 1-6pm at Meeting Room 2 of SMX Mall of Asia. I know, it’s a week day, but if there was any time to use a vacation leave for work, this is a good one! I already filed my leave! :) This is the first ever gathering of Filipino readers, bigger than all those meet-ups and book club meetings that we’ve been blogging about in the past year! There will be panel discussions on different topics like blogging and book clubs, social media and bookishness, and all sorts of fun activities made especially for Filipino readers.

And did I mention some cool prizes up for grabs? :)

My blogger friends have been making a lot of noise with this event in the past few weeks, so if you haven’t heard about it…well, now you have! I’ll be the live Twitter-er for the event, so follow @PinoyReaderCon for updates! More fun stuff and information on the official website for the conference, too :)

Ten days to go until this event, friends! Are you going? If so, I hope to see you guys there! :)

 

One of Our Thursdays is Missing

One of our Thursdays is MissingOne of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next # 6
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Number of pages: 416
My copy: trade paperback, bought from National Bookstore

It is a time of unrest in the BookWorld.

Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the peace talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the RealWorld or is this something more sinister?

All is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of speculative fiction is the written Thursday Next, eager to prove herself worthy of her illustrious namesake.

The fictional Thursday is soon hot on the trail of her factual alter-ego, and quickly stumbles upon a plot so fiendish that it threatens the very BookWorld itself.

* * *

I was planning to put off reading Jasper Fforde’s latest Thursday Next book until I found the time to reread the first five books. It’s been years since I last read any of them, so I thought I’d appreciate reading this latest one better if I read the first ones again. Never mind that there are five of them and it would take significant time off my real TBR. But then I got sick a few weeks before I had to fly to Europe, which got me worried about all kinds of things especially because of that trip to Europe. I needed a book to get my mind off the possibilities that my 48-hour on/off fever could mean, so I finally decided to unearth TN #6 out of the TBR pile. If there was an ultimate escape novel, I figured Thursday Next should be one.

Some spoilers for the first five books — be warned!

So the last time Thursday Next was in the Book World, she ended up looking for a replacement for her character in her series because the original fictional Thursday Next was too violent to be her. One of Our Thursdays is Missing is told from this new fictional Thursday’s point of view — a gentler, bohemian character who never tries to make waves even if it means being the boring Thursday Next that no one likes. But when she gets called by the Jurisfiction to investigate a crashed TransGenre Taxi. Fictional Thursday Next finds herself in the middle of a mystery that gets her involved in all sorts of fictional drama, and a robot butler to boot. With the real Thursday Next missing, it’s up to fictional Thursday Next to save the day.

I think it was Aaron who mentioned the perfect word to describe the Thursday Next series: it’s so meta. The first five Thursday Next books are pretty much meta-fiction – fiction about fiction. It’s what makes all the books so much fun to read especially for book-lovers, because we’re basically reading about books that we may or may not have read. And just as when you think that Jasper Fforde has no way to impress longtime fans of the series, he does something completely surprising and makes it work. If the first five books were meta-fiction, the sixth book is meta-Thursday Next. Meta-meta-fiction – that’s what this is. Kind of hard to wrap my mind around it, but it still works. One of Our Thursdays is Missing has all elements of a Fforde novel: seemingly random characters, odd accidents, mystery, murder, all wrapped in a fun, seemingly absurd package. Jasper Fforde is a genius, I tell you. :)

This book cheered me up so much while I was sick, especially after reading lines like these:

The Snooze button was reserved only for dire emergencies. Once utilised, a reverse throughput capacitor on the ImaginoTransference engines would cause the reader instantaneous yawning, drowsiness and then sleep…To discourage misuse, every time the button was pressed one or more kittens were put to death somewhere in the Book World. (p. 26-27)

I fell asleep several times while I was reading this. I wonder who was hitting the Snooze button.

Harry Potter was seriously pissed off that he’d have to spend the rest of his life looking like Daniel Radcliffe. (p. 75)

Hee hee!

“The Great Gatsby drives taxis in his spare time?”

“No, his younger and less handsome or less intelligent brother — the Mediocre Gatsby.” (p. 273)

I was a bit afraid that it would be hard to get back into the series again especially since it’s been so long since I read the first five books, but given that this book is narrated by the fictional Thursday Next, I didn’t have such a hard time. I don’t recommend starting the series with this book, though, but there is no need to reread the other books to make sense of this one.

One of Our Thursdays is Missing probably isn’t as witty as the first four books (best one for me is still Something Rotten), but it’s a good and fun addition to an already awesome series. :) The question is: will there be a next Thursday Next book? I sure hope so! :)

Rating: [rating=4]

Other reviews:
Bookmarked!