Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A compassionate, well-written book about the psychology, compulsions, and distress of hoarders. Contains detailed, fascinating narration of some cases, and interviews with people afflicted with this disorder. The first case presented is the heartbreaking tale of the Collyer brothers, who died surrounded by 140 tons of their hoarded items. The tale hooks you and pulls you in. Good read.
Most definitely in no particular order:
Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Charles Tan
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top-Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 1
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 3
We Bury the Landscape by Kristine Ong Muslim
How To Traverse Terra Incognita by Dean Francis Alfar
Beneath Sea and Sky: Erotic Stories of Fantasy by Shanna Germain
The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough
The Witnesses Are Gone by Joel Lane
White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
Kikomachine Komix Blg. 7 by Manix Abrera
Kikomachine Komix Blg. 8 by Manix Abrera
Naermyth by Karen Francisco
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Mga Angst ng Isang Di Mahapayang-Gatang by Resty Cena
*
You understand why I’m stopping myself from buying any more books.
How’s your pile looking?
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 7 by Kate Osias
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
(Disclaimer: I have a story in this anthology.)
Probably the strongest PSF volume to date. The quality of stories this time around is just staggering, with several stories worthy of treasured re-reading.
My favorites: “All the Best of Dark and Bright” by Isabel Yap, “East of the Sun” by Dean Francis Alfar, “Pet” by Kristine Ong Muslim, “The Changes” by Benito Vergara, “The Likeness of God” by Crystal Koo, “The Little Things the Datu Did” by Andrew Drilon, “What You See” by Ian Rosales Casocot, and “The Love Spell” by Julian dela Cerna.
Huh, that seems like 80 percent of the book.
These three stories I also liked, but I had problems with. (Spoiler warning.) “Chasers” by Chris Mariano is beautifully written, but I think I’m missing something here. I’m trying to look for the speculative element in the story (since this is a spec fic anthology) but couldn’t find it. I loved the haunting ending of “Sarsarita Time” by Melissa Sipin but I was bothered by the plot error in Alamat ng Pinya (the girl was turned into a pineapple because she kept saying that she couldn’t find things, so she was given many eyes) and how the name “Archangel” was introduced but not used. She was named Archangel and turned into a mirror? Loved the details and the language of “The Nature of Apocalypse” by Joseph Anthony Montecillo, but I wished it pumped up its oddness, its magical realism.
All in all, a great read.
Philippine Speculative Fiction VI by Nikki Alfar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
(Disclaimer: I have a story in this anthology.)
This volume contains such a varied collection of stories, and as what happens in an anthology that tries to cover all bases, not all of the stories appealed to me. But this is still a worthy read. The stand-outs, in my opinion: “Ashland” by Elyss Punsalan, “From the Book of Names My Mother Did Not Give Me” by Tin Lao, “Carpaccio (or, Repentance as a Meat Recipe)” by Arlynn Despi, and “Simon’s Replica” by Dean Alfar.
Right now I am reading volumes 1 and 3, reviewed 4 and 5, here’s 6, reading 7. I’m missing volume 2. Oops. But I need to clear my TBR pile first.
From Flipside VP and General Manager Honey de Peralta, posted 12 hours ago:
Launching a weekly Flipreads contest on Twitter with the question, “What’s your favorite Filipino book?”. Use the hashtag #flipreads with your answer. Answers will be accepted till tomorrow noon. Winner will be chosen at random and will win Eliza Victoria’s Lower Myths!
You have till noon today peeps!
Just tweet us your favorite novel using the #Flipreads hashtag (and if your account is private, make sure you mention @flipreads and we follow you so we can monitor it) and get a chance to win Lower Myths by Eliza Victoria.
Now available for online purchase
Amazon.com (MOBI) | Flipreads.com (Adobe DRM/EPUB) | iTunes (iOs)| Barnes & Noble (Nook Book)
Lower Myths features two compelling novelettes of contemporary fantasy. In “Trust Fund Babies,” children of two warring witch and fairy families face off in the final round to a centuries-old vendetta.
In “The Very Last Case of Messrs. Aristotel and Arkimedes Magtanggol,” an aristocrat and his daughter consult a famous lawyer-sibling pair about a mysterious crime. But in the lawyers’ hilltop mansion by the sea, they uncover sinister hints that their reality may not be what it seems.
Crystal Koo came home to Manila from Hong Kong, so she invited fellow writers out to lunch and coffee. We went to Sa Kanto in Podium. J and I had fun listening to the Alfars’ and the Osiases’ adventures in Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and elsewhere, Crystal’s adventures in teaching overseas, Tin’s adventures in acquiring a master’s degree in Creative Writing (ha!), and Charles various dramas (yes). There were so many stories that we couldn’t get a word in edgewise! And that’s a good thing! Of course we talked about other people’s relationships over coffee in Cafe Breton (the Alfars and the Osiases, unfortunately, had to run to get ready for the Palanca Awards) because that’s what writers do. Really.
Only J, Crystal, and I ate a lot. It was a bit…embarrassing. Haha! Especially if you’re seated next to Tin Lao who ate such a healthy lunch of eggplants and steamed rice. We all loved the Dynamite, chili fingers stuffed with beef and cheese, and I couldn’t resist ordering Kwek Kwek. The main dishes were so-so, and Crystal wasn’t a fan of the pork adobo. Next time, we’ll just order all of the side dishes – and a glass of beer. Check out this review, with pictures.
Nagutom ako bigla. Heh.
Thanks Crystal for putting this together. Let’s do this again!
And thanks Charles for these goodies:
In other food news: I loved this unagi casserole from UCC.
Got these German chocolate bars from J. It’s filled with strawberry yogurt. Yum.
In writing news: I am trying my hand at writing poetry in Filipino. There are two posted online, but they are friends-locked.
My brain is tired. I wish I had more time to read and write.
To be honest, when I finished reading this novel, my first reaction was, “That’s it?”
But I suppose it’s an issue of wrong expectations. The back blurb reads, Stevie is a killer. When she kills people she asks them: “WHAT DO YOU SEE?” She’s about to find out.
This happens about two-thirds into the book, and by then it’s too late to stop drumming my fingers. I dove into the novel expecting a philosophical serial killer searching for answers about the afterlife, and instead got a hodgepodge of family anecdotes from an extremely unlikable protagonist who keeps digging in her father’s backyard.
I have no problems with unlikable, morally corrupt protagonists. Patricia Highsmith’s Thomas Ripley is a forger, a liar, and a murderer, but he is also suave and charming. His thoughts, no matter how dark, are fascinating enough to enjoy and follow. What will happen next? I would wonder. What will he do next?
I found Stevie fascinating, but I couldn’t enjoy her company because she is too repulsive. Everyone in her universe is repulsive, and I kept resisting the text because some details sounded too fantastic to me. I mean, it’s not enough that there’s one sexual predator? It has to be almost every single person she meets?
Kaaron Warren writes well. There are brilliant passages here. She is able to successfully present a skewed view of the world. But in terms of structure, the novel’s downfall is its linearity. Yes, Stevie rambles and digresses, but the structure is still linear. At eighteen, the novel opens. At nineteen. And so on. Why remind us about Stevie’s age, when she never really grows? The novel feels like one whole day in the life of a disturbed young woman.
Slights has a horrifying premise – what if when we die, we don’t see angels or paradise or the people we love, but the people we have slighted? The people we don’t even remember? And what if these people surrounded us in a closed room and hurt us and ate our flesh for all of eternity? The story would have been more engaging if the novel opened with Stevie committing her first murder, in the hopes of finding the truth about the room she sees when she first dies. This is not a spoiler – it’s right there on the blurb anyway.
Eliza Victoria 