Wanted: Reviewers for Monstress
Fil-American author Lysley Tenorio is coming to Manila to give a talk and do a signing on February 9 at 4 pm, at the National Book Store flagship in Glorietta 1.
We’re looking for three volunteers to review Tenorio’s short story collection, Monstress. We’ll give you a copy, and expect the critique—minimum 500 words—by 31 January. (Ordinarily we’d assign the book to our regulars, but our last experiment at getting people to review books was a terrible flop. Only Cacs, lestat and Turmukoy delivered. Yes, you should feel guilty.)
If you’re interested, sign up in Comments and attach a sample paragraph from a review you have written. The names of the chosen reviewers will be posted tomorrow morning.
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Thanks for sending your samples! As luck would have it we visited the National HQ today and got a stack of books to review. We’ll post the assignments tomorrow morning.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 10th, 2013 at 09:36
sali po ako, please po.
January 10th, 2013 at 09:49
If you’ve gotten hooked on the series after starting on A Game of Thrones, and its succeeding titles, expect sleepless nights ripping through page after page—never start reading a thick George R.R. Martin book unless you mean to finish it within a few days. If you’re going on vacation, get the Kindle version to avoid bopping yourself on the nose in case you fall asleep from sheer exhaustion (it also prevents other people from borrowing the print version if they catch you pausing from your reading, because once someone borrows it, they’re not likely to return it until they’re done reading). Don’t bother asking Santa to stuff this in your stocking—just go out and get it. Instead, ask Santa for Book Six and hope Martin finishes it soon (read: yesterday).
January 10th, 2013 at 11:08
Hi Jessica!
I want to volunteer! Sorry if it took me too long to review the last book you sent.
Here is my sample:
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
It’s tempting to brand Eva as an anti-hero (or a pig), the mother who just wasn’t that into motherhood. But maybe she really IS a hero. To willfully defy what is expected of you as a woman is to demonstrate a certain kind of heroism. She’s a hero for not wanting to have a cute little family with precocious kids who will become future doctors and lawyers, because look what happens when certain women give birth to kids like Kevin. Had she prevented this giving birth nonsense, 11 people would have been spared their lives. Some cervixes are just not meant to labor. For those of the steely persuasion that every child is a gift from baby Jesus, meet Kevin, killer of people. But guard your feelings of hate on Kevin for he is a special kind of bastard. He is, as his English teacher perfectly described him, a ‘savage social satirist’. When pressed for the inevitable question of ‘why’, his answer is bullshit-averse: ‘…I’m not looking for an excuse here. I don’t blame some satanic cult or pissy girlfriend or big bad bully who called me a fag. One of the things I can’t stand about this country is lack of accountability. Everything Americans do that doesn’t work out too great has to be somebody else’s fault. Me, I stand by what I done…’ Eva’s saving grace in having Kevin is her sense of humor and self-deprecating reflex. She knows what she is the mother of but she doesn’t equate self-awareness with virtue.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:15
lestat: You’re not alluded to haha. In fact you were one of the few who actually turned in reviews.
January 10th, 2013 at 11:38
Pwede pa mag volunteer?
Sample: (The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides, from my Goodreads review here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10964693-the-marriage-plot)
Leonard turns out to be more interesting once he got his own POV chapter while Mitchell gets more tiresome. Overall the book is vaguely disappointing. I think the biggest issue is the character of Madeline, which is a shame because she is the linchpin of the novel. It’s strange to me to find how a writer who could infuse Calliope Stephanides with such life and complexity, and evoke so much from a few broad strokes the sisters in Virgin Suicides, could create a character so irritating and lifeless. It’s as if we’re to derive meaning deep based on her scholarly interests, but apart from that she’s all spoiled upper-class Princess talking back to her parents or wondering petulantly why she is so very sad and maligned when everyone else is so happy. I felt constantly being told “She’s wonderful! And pretty! And marvelous!” but nowhere in the book is this actually *shown.*
January 10th, 2013 at 11:41
Sorry, wrong link: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/435075429
January 10th, 2013 at 12:32
i want to volunteer as well… here’s the first paragraph of one of my book reviews from my previous blog:
The first thirty or so pages of ‘The Politics of AIDS’ reads like a sequel to ‘And the Band Played On’ (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1987), Randy Shilts’ lucid and compelling account of the American government’s reactions and responses in the first years of the AIDS epidemic. The story told by Shilts is as old as the AIDS epidemic itself, but it remains significant today because the impact of the actions of those involved early on are still being felt today. If anything, Peter Gill’s book can be considered a sequel in the truest sense of the word: dealing with the same issue (the government’s response and reaction to AIDS) but widening the scope (the world) and expounding on the previously presented problems (prejudice, religion, morality, economics, etc.). The book asks why and how AIDS has managed to kill 25 million people around the world in 25 years, considering the preventable nature of HIV infection. The 40 million people infected with HIV did not have to be infected, the book posits, then calls individuals and institutions worldwide to account.
January 10th, 2013 at 14:25
From “Not a ‘burgis’ collection:”
Reading Gilda Cordero Fernando’s “The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestickmaker” in one sitting does not necessarily require a deep affection for Philippine literature in English or an understanding of the writer’s milieu (suburban middle class). You only need to be equipped with a general interest in realist fiction peppered with your ability to suspend your disbelief.
One story depicts corruption in a quiet town while the other is about a man made from dust who fancies dancing with a lonely housewife. The book not only engages but will make you want to read more of the author’s other collections (mostly written in the 1950s).
The ten short stories in the collection are already considered a classic. A wide reader may have encountered one of Gilda’s stories in one of those anthologies or read her during high school as part of the reading list for students. At any rate, the stories were not stuck in postwar and went on to become one of the best reads in Philippine short story fiction.
Take for instance “High Fashion” the first story in the collection. It’s about Gabinto, the god of haute couture during the heyday of Malate in the 50s. Gilda had a good grasp of the postwar Malate neighborhood when it became a hub of “arts, culture, and fashion,” after the war destroyed most of the American-style houses of the once “Forbes Park of Manila.” But one house stood out; that is of Gabinto’s, situated at the Malate rotunda. It dwarfed the other houses with their postwar reconstructions while the house of the fashion designer maintained the house’s prewar quality (materyales fuertes) and charm.
More than the story’s elegance and accurate depiction of a slice of Philippine fashion in the fifties, the circumstances are timeless. It is after all, about love for one’s craft but a complete disregard to love oneself that leads to obsession.
High Fashion also shows dressing up as a prerequisite for a good life, specifically for those who can afford to have their clothes tailored rather than subsist on ready-to-wear clothing. The clothes in the story serve as a backdrop but weaves into Gabinto’s character: a meek but privileged fashion guru, a perfectionist who seeks the ideal model for his work of art. He seeks for “the one,” a woman whom he will call his creation. He eventually found her; a template of God indeed, yet this yearning to create his magnum opus lead him to his unjust fate.
January 10th, 2013 at 17:18
“If you’re interested, sign up in Comments and attach a sample paragraph from a review you have written. The names of the chosen reviewers will be posted tomorrow morning.”
Does the sample review have to be on books? (Since the instructions don’t specify a book review, though obviously it will be a book of short stories that will be reviewed end-state)
It’s been a while since I reviewed a book, and I lost all the soft copies of book reviews I’ve done when one of my external hard drives got accidentally wiped out (much gnashing of teeth, since a few of my older short stories also went poof!)
The only available reviews I have are for movies (all of which are on my blog).
January 10th, 2013 at 18:05
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (don’t you just love this reclusive writer who provided us good stories) is one those books that you don’t want to let go in case you decided to de-clutter your bookshelves to sort the books you can donate or sell so you would have enough space for the new ones. It’s just a beautiful piece of literature that when the ‘bum’ time comes, Catcher in the Rye would be one of those books you would happily read again.
It’s refreshing to read this book because one; It’s refreshingly honest, two; it’s refreshingly emotional, three; it’s refreshingly whiny and sarcastic. Now, all those adjectives seem to be unflattering but when you read the book you’ll know what I mean when I said “refreshing”.
Narration.
It’s written from the point of view of its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, a teen-age kid who is just kicked out in school. The story is a series of Holden’s weird adventures from the moment he left Pencey Prep, his school in Pennsylvania, up to the time he arrived in New York, his hometown, just in time of Christmas break. His narration is mostly about the different persons he meets in a seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes. His narrative is full of sarcasm about people; mostly about these ‘phonies’ and ‘crooks’ that ‘killed’ him, either from his present encounter or just from snap reminisces. Phoniness is probably the most famous word from the book and obviously Holden’s favorite concept. It is his adjective for describing the superficiality, pretension and shallowness that he encounters in the world around him.
Tone and Style.
I like the book’s conversational style. Holden’s discontentment and his vivid and honest way of expressing it just strongly resonates. You might even think that Holden is a pessimistic kind of guy because he always sounds like a grumpy old man but you can’t help but to laugh at the extent of his sarcasm towards other people and how shallow and oversimplified some of the reasons are. It’s unusual that at his age, he can make an intricate observation about people. He is judgmental of almost everything and of everybody. He criticizes and philosophizes people which stimulates your own. His passing judgments however, are sometimes extremely amusing.
Characters.
He introduces a variety of characters, mostly phonies he said, and you can’t help but to relate either from Holden himself or from some of the people he describes, and would ask yourself “am I being whiny or phony too sometimes?” Although Holden seems to be about whining, rebellion and alienation, he is often sensitive and emotional too. He often uses the phrase, “I felt sorry for her…” to some of the characters he meets. The book is a defining work of what it means to be a teenager. For me, it was an adventure reading this book. It’s funny how I can attribute some of his characters to me or to some of the people I know. It’s impossible not to relate to Holden’s changing moods, alienation and sarcasm.”
also posted from my blog: http://dailysomersault.com
January 10th, 2013 at 18:08
allancarreon: Yes, we’ll take reviews of anything. You don’t have to send samples—we’ve read (and commiserated with) your MMFF movie reviews. We have a book in mind for you (Have you read Ben Marcus?). Assignments will be posted tomorrow.
January 10th, 2013 at 18:09
Thank you, Jeffrey, but is that a paragraph? Is that a paragraph?
January 10th, 2013 at 18:13
oops sorry jessica. Mine is not a paragraph. I don’t know how to delete it :-(
January 10th, 2013 at 18:25
lestat: You like Chris Abani?
January 10th, 2013 at 18:54
I had to google because I’m not familiar with him, but sure!
I just realized I signed up for this and for Proust. I’ll attempt the Proust na lang on the side. Makiki-salimpusa if ever. (Hi Mat)
January 10th, 2013 at 20:47
My apologies, Jessica. I couldn’t stop writing. Hehe.
Here’s a one-paragraph “sample” book review of “Stories” by Kerima Polotan Tuvera:
The literary success of Polotan’s work is compressed in what the author refers to as her “thin harvest.” Stories, a collection of short fiction is a mixed bag of themes ranging from embracing change to denying one’s past. But what will engage the readers (apart from Polotan’s eloquent language that reels us in) is that her fiction is about you and me, or what could have been or you should have been. She holds the truth in her writing and if you have a good grasp of what humanity should be, one of her stories such as “The Tourists” is like a slap on the face, and the book is the one actually hard-hitting you with reality disguising as fiction. The truth lies in fiction after all, and Polotan effortlessly accomplishes the task of presenting the truth.
January 10th, 2013 at 22:10
Submitting two paragraphs. Not quite sure if I can write a decent review, but I can turn in a reaction write-up.
If you’ve seen The Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio, you’ve heard of Howard Hughes, Tourette’s syndrome, and OCD. Multiply the closing bit by a thousand, imagine someone living with Tourette’s and OCD every waking hour and you’ve got Cory Friedman.
Med Head, a collaborative biography written by James Patterson and Hal Friedman, tells it all about Cory. I’m not about to rewrite the quote-unquote biography so if you want to stay in this post, get yourself a copy. Med Head is a multi-layered account of the real deal behind Cory’s battle with his unusual medical condition. Multi-layered as it was written in Cory’s point of view (yes, first person) by Patterson with recollections provided by Hal Friedman which makes Med Head’s honesty questionable.