Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell

After posts on cuddly things and nail polish, it's back to books!

Beat The Reaper starts off by introducing you to Dr. Peter Brown. In the opening scene he beats the shit out of the poor guy who had the gall to try to rob him. He let him live though. But he left him hanging by a thread, broken body and all.

Dr. Brown has secrets...deep, dark and tragic. He lost his family through murder. He was a mob hit man for a significant part of his life. And he was nearly saved by love. But that turned out to be the biggest tragedy of all. It doesn't go as planned but it changes him.

The love experience leads him to make the decision to get out of the mafia. He gets into the government witness protection program and starts a new life as a doctor.  He's good at it. And while his past still haunts him, he's doing okay.

The only problem is, the mafia's still out looking for him. And in the book, an ailing mafia boss recognizes him in the hospital. And that's when the craziness begins.

The story unfolds to be a lot of things. It's devastating, sad, ridiculously funny, gory and overall very weird. But there's a lot of hope in all this madness. And you'll find yourself caught in all the drama, action and comedy of it all.

This book isn't a heavy read. It'll get your brain working a little bit because the story telling is a little cryptic. But, in all, it's fun and enjoyable.

                                   I bought mine at Fully Booked Cebu for only P315. A good read at a great price! You can get a copy at Amazon too.

Here is a review from the New York Times if you want to know more about the story. You can also go to the book's home page here. Happy reading! Let me know if you liked it. :)

The Miraculous Lady of Candles

Just in time for Holy Week, let me share this picture of me with the miraculous Lady of Candles (Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria) and the child Jesus. This image of the Holy Mother and Child can be found in the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City, Philippines. This image is over 400 years old.

My friend took me around when I visited. And she pointed out the cathedral as we were driving through the city proper. The story of this image starts with a fisherman who finds it tangled in his net. The fisherman was in the middle of the sea, so he was astonished to find the image among his catch. He decided to donate the image to the church. And what started out as a small image (it fit in the net, right?) has now turned into this life size statue.

The image is cemented  in front of the cathedral at the top tower. It is encased too. But it has been growing. I've heard of growing rocks before but this one grows without altering its proportions. Every year there is a big fiesta to honor the image. And the virgin is fitted with new garments for the event. Every year the sewers are astonished to find that the size for the clothes just keep getting bigger.

So that's me looking at the image. Look at how small my head is compared to it. It's grown to be that big! It's a beautiful sight. Try to visit Our Lady when you're in Iloilo :)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

When I first saw this book and read it's synopsis, I wasn't too interested. The story was set in the 1960s  in Jackson, Mississippi. And at first glace it seemed like another book about the relationships of black maids and their white employers. This certainly wasn't a new story. And I'm not a big fan of stories set in the past either. I like my stories set in more recent times, at the very least they should be in the 80s. If the plot is earlier than that, I feel like I can't relate. And I've developed a habit of immediately disregarding it from my must-buy book list.

As chance would have it, I was browsing options at Fully Booked when I saw that this book was only P299. The other book I was interested in was P500+, so I figured I'd read this first. Obviously, I was short on cash too, so this book won over the other one.

When I opened the book to read the first page that night, I was riveted. It was absolutely spell binding. Kathryn Stockett's writing made me feel like I was there with Abileen and hot-headed, Minny. I felt like I was eavesdropping on Ms. Leefolt and Skeeter's conversations. I felt like I was in the South in 1962. I felt the tension of a society on the verge of a revolution. And I felt the impatience and the frustration of the black community struggling to assert their rights.

This book was number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. And it was USA Today's Book of the Year. After reading the it, I felt like the book really deserved both achievements. Especially the Book of the Year Award, it was definitely wonderful enough to merit that. It was truly beautiful story. The emotions are restrained but real. And the writing is superb. Plus, there's a bit of funny in there too. A very excellent read. I really recommend it.
                                                                             

The Illustrado by Miguel Syjuco

This book is a Palanca and Man Asia Literary Prize winner. While I was impressed with the awards, I was hesitant to buy the book and read it for myself. Truth be told, I had low expectations for Filipino literature. I had somehow gotten the idea in my head that they would always be in two kinds of stories that I do not personally enjoy. They would either be written completely in deep Tagalog, which I do not particularly understand (Cebuano here, sorry!), or they would be set in a stereotypical Filipino plot with lots of melodrama and suffering.

I've passed this book by for a full year before a professor recommended the book in one class that I took recently. My professor happened to be the Director for the Philippine National Book Board. I didn't even know we had a Book Board! Anyway, my interest was piqued.

The book starts out slow and it actually took me around two months to get passed page 50. But once I got to the good stuff, I couldn't put it down. I read the book till the end in five hours straight. And the ending drove me crazy! It's was definitely unexpected. And it was genius in a sick, twisted, lets-torture-the-reader sort of way. I couldn't sleep for hours after reading the ending. It was that insane!

I definitely have to read the book again to fully understand everything. And most importantly to understand the full meaning of the ending. A absolutely and ridiculously good book. I highly recommend it.

And the best part is, I've gained a renewed respect for Filipino stories and Filipino writers. We definitely have a lot of good ones. We're just not aware that they exist. Thank you, Miguel Syjuco!