It’s been a while since I last made a list of books to read and stuck to it. I do have a list somewhere, but I keep straying from it, abandoning books and picking up random titles and buying more ebooks on the Amazon Kindle store when I already have a ton of paperbacks nearby. Amazon, man. Amazon is bad.
The last book I finished is Stephen King’s 11/22/63.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a fine novel about time travel and its joys and troubles. I was hesitant to pick up this book when it first came out, because 1) it was crazy hefty, and 2) it deals with changing real-life events, like the “Kill Hitler” trope, and I’ve read those before and those kinds of stories never end well, do they?
But then we’re given Jake Epping, a high school teacher who wants to stop the Kennedy assassination, but it’s not the only reason he agrees to go back in time. He also wants to help a janitor at his school who has suffered an unimaginable tragedy as a child. The assassination is a national tragedy, for sure, but I am more interested in the tragedies that never appear in the news, the “little” ones, the ones that stay hidden behind curtains and doors. I have never met Kennedy, but I feel like I have met that janitor, once in my life.
So I am hooked, and I read this book on my phone even inside a moving vehicle. And I never read inside moving vehicles unless there’s an urgent reason. I read it so quickly I did not even notice its length.
It is an excellent, moving novel. Do read this one.
* * *
I already have Under the Dome, so of course I dove into that, but I looked at my stack of books and realized that I have a lot of local titles I haven’t even started yet. Yeech.
So here’s my new All-Filipino Writers Reading List (in no particular order):
Waking the Dead by Yvette Tan
Twisted 9 by Jessica Zafra
Mythspace by Paolo Chikiamco and Koi Carreon
fled their faces turned by Christian Tablazon
Now, Then, and Elsewhen by Nikki Alfar
Fairy Tale Fail by Mina V. Esguerra
Interim Goddess of Love by Mina V. Esguerra
Naermyth by Karen Francisco
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 8 by various authors
The Best of PSF (2005-2010) by various authors
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 1 by various authors
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3 by various authors
How to Traverse Terra Incognita by Dean Francis Alfar
Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata by Ricky Lee
JUST ADDED: #romanceclass bundle from Mina V. Esguerra
All’s Fair in Blog and War by Chrissie Peria
Cover (Story) Girl by Chris Mariano
Save the Cake by Stella Torres
The Real Score by Kesh Tanglao
Vintage Love by Agay Lllanera
Basically I just listed the local titles I have on my phone (ebooks) and at home (paperbacks). I have dipped into most of these, particularly the PSF titles, but I take a long time finishing short story anthologies because you can easily start and stop reading (both a pro and a con for anthos). I’ll add more titles if I missed anything (like, if a paperback slid off my stack and got stuck in a corner and I forgot about it and it’s all moldy now get a grip), or if I acquire new ones.
This should keep me occupied until the end of the year. Wish me luck.
Eliza Victoria 
I actually really enjoyed the King without the Kennedy plotline. I kept rushing through the alternate history for the love story.
Right?
Wish we could talk more about it but Spoilers :).
Hahaha!