Category: Books

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Book Launch: A Time for Dragons

We almost missed this book launch.

M1 was eager to go to this one because his teacher, Vincent Simbulan, was launching an anthology of dragon stories written by a pool of authors including himself. But when we went to Shangri-la Plaza Mall last March 26, there was no such event!

Thanks to a heads-up by Dom Cimafranca, my online contact who happened to also be one of the authors, I found out that the launch was for March 29 (not the 26th) in the mall. So much for date mix-ups! 

Cover-A Time for Dragons

 

A Time for Dragons (under Anvil Publishing) is a collaboration consisting of 17 short stories and 1 essay by Filipino writers who, as stated in Anvil’s website, “aim to present the dragon in new and inventive ways, and to renew and refresh the dragon for a more sophisticated and mature audience”. Vin Simbulan mentioned that unlike other parts of the world where the dragon is often depicted as an evil being (including in the Bible), Asian dragons were depicted as heroic, gentle creatures. Even the cover of the book was truly a work of art. It was awesome! And when we met the illustrator, Andrew Drilon, who did the cover as well as all the illustrations inside, I remember thinking how young he was. Truly gifted!

Here is the book’s Table of Contents to give you a flavor of what is inside.

“Glass” by Nikki Alfar
“Dragon Brother” by Cyan Abad-Jugo
“The Annotated Account of Tholomew Mestich” by Elyss Punsalan
“The Clockwork Dragon’s Heart” by Vincent Michael Simbulan
“Moondown and Fugue” by Alexander Drilon
“Gunsaddled” by Alexander Marcos Osias
“Lex Talionis” by Paolo Chikiamco
“The Final Tale of Zhang Bai Long” by Elbert Or
“A Fishy Tale” by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
“Johnny Tatô and the Dragon of Pasig” by Joseph Nacino
“Capture” by Gabriela Lee
“3:30pm with Sir Galahad” by Kate Aton-Osias
“A Change of Guards” by Oscar Alvarez
“The Fossil” by Angelo R. Lacuesta
“A Little Knowledge” by Dominique Cimafranca
“The Bridge” by Yvette Natalie U. Tan
“Fallow’s Flight” by Dean Francis Alfar
“Dragons Among Us (Essay)” by Charles Tan

 

Book signing followed after the launch and M1 got each of the authors (at least those present) to sign NOT on the introduction pages but on the 1st page of their respective stories. How’s that for being different!
Some pictures from the launch follow:
M1 with his professor/author, Vincent Simbulan
M1 with his professor/author, Vincent Simbulan
Some of the authors
Some of the authors
M1 has his book copy signed by his teacher
M1 has his book signed by his teacher
Andrew Drilon, the illustrator
Andrew Drilon, the illustrator

 

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Our Harry Potter Day

Yes, unlike my 2 diehard mommy blogger friends (Noemi and Dine) who, together with their daughters, lined up at 7AM in the morning to get their Harry Potter 7 books, I did not make HP history.

Instead, I was still in bed trying to catch more winks after having slept past midnight. The kids also could not get up in time for the 11:30 AM showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at Promenade so we took a vote and decided unanimously to just take it easy and go to the 2:15 PM show instead.

Continue reading “Our Harry Potter Day”

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A Brewing Storm on July 21

 

As I write this, it is merely hours before Book 7 of the Harry Potter series hits Manila with the force of a signal 3 storm.

The bookstore branch where we had reserved our copy months ago just sent an email that they will open their doors as early as 7AM to accommodate the expected throng of HP can’t-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-it fans who have followed Harry, Hermione and Ron from the start. The plan for us now is to watch HP the Movie tomorrow first thing (yes, because of my confinement we are one of the last in the metro who still have not seen it) then walk over to the bookstore and bring home THE book.  Continue reading “A Brewing Storm on July 21”

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A Book That Could Save a Relationship

If ever there is a book that will save many a marriage or relationship (and make you laugh while reading it), THIS IS IT — “Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps”. My feet were killing me at a mall while I waited for hubby to pick me up, so I dodged into the bookstore and ended up buying this one.

I had read “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” and it was good, intellectual reading — that is, if you got to finish reading it from cover to cover. This book, authored by Allan & Barbara Pease, may be a very simplified version of the Venus-Mars one but it does play up so many of the irritants that can crop up between a man and a woman and gives a logical explanation to them — that when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of things, men and women are indeed WIRED DIFFERENTLY and, in the authors’ words, “the way our brains are wired and the hormones pulsing through our bodies are the two factors that largely dictate, long before we are born, how we will think and behave. Our instincts are simply our genes determining how our bodies will behave in given sets of circumstances.” Continue reading “A Book That Could Save a Relationship”