JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

TOKYO—Over the past few years, as many people rushed to trade in their old phones for smartphones, Japan’s philanderers have remained faithful to one particular brand: Fujitsu Ltd.’s older “F-Series” phones, which feature some attractive stealth privacy features.

The aging flip-phone—nicknamed the “uwaki keitai” or “infidelity phone”—owes its enduring popularity to customers who don’t believe newer smartphones are as discreet at hiding their illicit romances.

Read Japan’s Philanderers Stay Faithful to Their “Infidelity Phones” in WSJ

Here comes your Wi-Fe! If we spot someone with this flip-phone we’ll just assume he’s a cheater.

1984 by George Orwell. Cover design by David Pearson

There are many clever covers for 1984, but this one is the best we’ve seen.

Cover design by Paul Sahre

At last, a Delmore Schwartz collection! We’ve been looking for years.

Best Book Covers of 2012, as chosen by our favorite book cover designers. (Chip Kidd didn’t reply?)

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.

Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions.

Apparently actors have it right: posing works.

Reviewers, all your books have been delivered to National Bookstore at Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Claim them at the Customer Service counter, give your full names.

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kratienza, the boomerang kid and turmukoy will review Monstress by Lysley Tenorio. Your copies should be ready early next week. (Chad, please send them over!) We’ll alert you when you can pick them up at National Bookstore in Rockwell—please post your full names in Comments (they won’t appear). It’s a short book of short stories; we’re sure you can send us your reviews by February 4. The plan is to publish them before Lysley Tenorio’s talk and signing on February 9. Please email your articles (500-word minimum) to Saffy, saffron.safin@gmail.com.

We’re also assigning these new-ish titles to volunteers:

Chris Abani’s The Virgin of Flames to lestat,

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus (Php595 at NBS) to allancarreon,

and The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann to gamboagan.

allancarreon and lestat, you can pick up your review copies at the Customer Service counter at National Bookstore, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati starting Monday, January 14, in the afternoon. (Call first. (02)8974562. Give your full names.) gamboagan, please post your full name in Comments (they won’t be published) so you can claim your book. We’ll need your reviews (500-word minimum) by February 28; please email them to Saffy.

Saffy is reviewing the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, now available at National Bookstore branches.

The review copies are yours to keep, and we’ll probably ask you to do more reviews for us in the future. What happens if you flake out and fail to submit a review? Something horrific. (Cue thunder, lightning, hissing cats and maniacal laughter.)

We’re hoping to make the outsourced reviews a regular feature, so if you’d like to join the reviewers’ pool, please post a sample paragraph from any review you have written.

Throughout childhood our breakfast consisted of a warm glass of milk, a soft-boiled egg, and a sermon from our mother (“!@#$%^you’re late for school again *&^%$!”). So the second we became autonomous, we gave up a proper breakfast. And waking up early and being told what to do.

Our non-breakfast consists of

A cup of coffee, two if we’re not late for something. A friend recommended a local brand called 18 Days—it’s called that because coffee is supposed to be consumed within 18 days after the beans are roasted. (We thought it was a shortened incubation period for zombie plague.) Last Sunday we bought a 250g bag of Arabica at their stall in the food court of Cash & Carry. It tastes wonderful, and it makes the kitchen smell good.

A heaping tablespoon of psyllium fiber in a cup of water. Fiber is said to help lower cholesterol levels, which is always a good thing. There are many brands of psyllium fiber in the market; we take Megafiber because a friend foisted a bunch of samples on us and we got into the habit. The fiber in one teaspoon is equivalent to 14 tablespoons of oat bran—it would take us a while to finish that much oat bran, but only 20 seconds to drink the contents of this cup.

A Berocca (Vitamin B-complex, ascorbic acid, calcium, magnesium and zinc) effervescent tablet, because we like “effervescent”. Not for people on low sodium diets.

This is what passes for our health regimen. (To our credit, we’re not on any meds.) Then we go and have an evil lunch.

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.