booklat:

Holiday/Birthday Giveaway!

Because it’s the holiday season and also my birthday soon, I’m hosting booklat’s first ever giveaway!

You’re getting some of my cherished books and other nifty things:
- A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom
- The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg
- The Bad Girl’s Guide to The Open Road by Cameron Tulle
- N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto
- Vintage Alphabet Stamps, Sign Language
- A pretty notebook with art by Joanne De Leon from ANTUKIN: Philippine Folk Songs and Lullabyes
- Filipiniana pencils from The Ayala Museum
- Sparkly stickers handmade by me :)
(plus other surprises)

I’ll be picking the winner the day before my birthday, (January 4) and I’ll announce the winner here.

TWO WAYS TO JOIN:

A. REBLOG this entry on Tumblr  and indicate the title & author of a book on your Christmas wishlist.

or

B. LINK BACK to this post on Twitter and indicate the title & author of a book on your Christmas wishlist. Use the hashtag #yaybooklat

or

C. You can do BOTH. (Counts as two entries!)

I’ll probably add more items to the package over the weekend. Yay! :)

Note: Open only to residents of the Philippines :)

* Giveaway hosted by rainbowramareads

GIVEAWAY ALERT! =) 

booklat:

Man, I wish I wrote this Monday: The Sounds of Sunday by Kerima Polotan

One day, she sat longer than she intended. When she stood up, it was evening. A desire to weep had possessed her. He had probably not waited, and it was an eternity to the next Saturday. She began to hurry. At the second corner, she ran, forgetting everything else. When she reached the lighted door of the restaurant, she saw him at the table, a sad, hurt, puzzled look on his face. She stepped in quickly and said, “You are here.”

“Would you have wanted me to go?”

“No,” she said. It was a bold thing to say; it was a perilous thing to say. She felt her defenses go: such a brief word yet it stripped her completely.

He looked at her. “May I wait for you here on Saturday?”

She did not meet his gaze.

“Dear Emma,” he said suddenly.

“Don’t.”

“Em—,” he had never called her that before. “I would like to wait for you,” he  continued softly, “here, and in all the places you could possibly think of, for all the hours life will allow me.”

For every good story, there is that one terribly good moment that feels like a punch in the gut. For me, for this story, this is that moment. I’ll always look back to this story whenever I hear the phrase quiet heartbreak.

Submitted by pleasepanda

About time we re-read this gem, hmm.

booklat:

This Author Rocks My Socks-Tuesday: Jeanette Winterson

I remember being introduced to Winterson in an Erotica writing class I took in college — we read her Poetics of Sex, and as a young lesbian only about to come out then, I took to her writing immediately. The following year, for a Fiction class this time, we discussed her “24-hour Dog” and I was like, Damn this woman is going to kill me with her words.

Fast forward to a couple of years later — I was strolling through the old Fully Booked at Power Plant when I came across “Written on the Body”. One really shouldn’t walk through book stores when heartbroken haha (or maybe one should?) - I opened the book and the first line was, Why is the measure of love loss? (First line pa lang, patay ka na.) So I bought it, went hungry for a few days (haha), but then it was so worth it.

It’s been a few years since I was that heartbroken kid, and I always point to Written on the Body as the quintessential break-up book. These days whenever I browse through my copy I still see the faint marks along the margins, and I kind of want to hug that girl who made all these markings. She must have been so sad, haha. Good thing she chose a good book as company.a

It’s easy to be caught up in Winterson’s words — she’s into much calisthenics, I think, and like a true addict I proceeded to buy her other books, though nothing came quite as close to Written on the Body, in terms of impact, but I guess that’s just me.

(An aside: Fuckyeahjeanettewinterson on Tumblr. Relevant link is relevant.)

This Author Rocks My Socks!-Tuesday over at Booklat! :) Come and join us :)

booklat:

What I’m Reading-Wednesday: Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

It’s certainly been a while since I read anything by Palahniuk, and I was actually waiting to read this until after last weekend’s plane trip. Haha. Here goes! =)

My maiden post over at the girlfriend’s Book Blog! Contributors welcome! :)