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A word from our sponsor:

Tigerair Philippines has announced the cancellation of its domestic flights tomorrow, Friday, 8 November 2013, due to typhoon Yolanda.

However, Tigerair flights to Singapore, Hongkong, and Bangkok via Clark International Airport will go on as scheduled.

Affected passengers may rebook without penalties for travel within 30 days from original flight. Call the Tigerair hotline at 7984488 for more information.

We took a poll of our Workshop participants, and most of them would prefer to start the Writing Workshop in January, after the holiday madness has passed. However, we’ve found that the merrymaking, overindulgence, chaos and general absurdity of the season is a great spur for writing, and we can’t allow this time to go to waste. As Reg pointed out, “the holidays are a source of emotion we can draw on.”

So we’re having an Orientation for the participants to the Writer’s Workshop on Saturday, 23 November 2013, 2pm at the WSI Corporate Center on Metropolitan Avenue, Makati (near the Makati fire station, here’s the map). We’ll schmooze with the writers, talk over their immediate concerns, and work out schedules and targets for their projects. Writers, if you have your early chapters ready, please bring printed copies you can give us. If you can’t make it on November 23, don’t worry—the workshop starts officially on January 11.

From 4 to 6pm, we’ll have a meet and greet with Drogon the cat. And a book swap! Bring the books you’d like to exchange or give away.

Can you make it? Drop us a line in Comments so we’ll know how much coffee and cake to prepare. Yes, you can have your picture taken with Drogon, provided he likes you (He does not scratch, and he allows us to trim his nails). If you’d like to bring a gift for Drogon, dry cat food (kibble) and kitty litter (non-clumping) would be highly appreciated.

The members of our Camus Translation Group can pick up their books at the meet and greet. See you there. Casual attire, but we won’t stop you if you want to wear white tie.

Dindin, the boomerang kid, balqis, wangbumaximus21, messengerbagboy, Uro, oberstein, the chronicler of boredom, Patricia, qbeng, and turmukoy have turned in their pages, and magilas joined us belatedly. We are 78 percent done. Waiting for the others.

Translators, please email us your full names so we can credit you properly.

A 1959 TV interview with Camus on his adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Demons.

Starting next week, Tigerair Philippines partners with Jessica Rules the Universe to bring you weekly updates on the airline’s special deals and promos, and a monthly contest where you can win free trips to Tigerair destinations. In fact you don’t even have to win our contest to get an excellent travel deal: Tigerair offers affordable flights right now.

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From Manila, Tigerair flies out of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA 4) to Bacolod, Cebu, Iloilo, Boracay (Kalibo with transfer to Caticlan), Puerto Princesa and Tacloban.

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Welcome to our universe, TigerAir!

The Goldfinch, cover design by Keith Hayes. Php755 at National Bookstores.

Stephen King led us to The Goldfinch. In his NYT review of Donna Tartt’s third novel, he mentions Dickens, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an adolescent narrator suspended from school, and a little-known Dutch master—concepts which make a novel almost unbearably attractive to us. King also mentions the book’s toe-crushing heft, which would be annoying if he weren’t Stephen King and if our arms weren’t tired from reading this 771-page novel in bed. The e-book would be more convenient, except that every 50 pages we have to stop to give this book a big hug. We love it.

The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. Photo from The World According to Art.

We’re only halfway through The Goldfinch, but it’s already our favorite book of 2013. (No, we haven’t read The Secret History or The Little Friend.) Okay, it could still fall apart for us. And there are nearly two months left in the year. But we have to stop typing now because we need to get back to our reading.

* * * * *

Speaking of arresting book designs, we’re waiting for

Two formerly unknown paintings by German artist Otto Dix found a trove of modern art seized by the Nazis. Photograph: Michael Dalder/REUTERS

An art haul confiscated from a Munich flat includes previously unknown works by Marc Chagall and Otto Dix, and original pieces by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Bavarian authorities have revealed.

The whereabouts of the 80-year-old owner of the flat, Austrian Cornelius Gurlitt, is not known…

Read the report in the Guardian.

Recommended reading:

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel is the story of a small band of soldiers tasked to protect and secure the artistic and cultural treasures of Europe during World War II. Today we’d call them the Nerd Squad—the historians, art conservators, museum curators (including the future founder of the New York City Ballet) who saved civilization during some of its darkest hours. Apart from safeguarding art masterpieces in areas of heavy fighting, the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section also foiled Hitler’s plan to build the world’s most fabulous art collection by looting the museums of Europe.

It’s an amazing tale, and a belated tribute to the men and women who risked everything to keep these priceless treasures safe. (Their achievement was not officially recognized till 2007.) The prose is kind of flat, and there’s too much about troop movements and not enough about the art, but this is a military history book. We’re looking forward to the film adaptation by George Clooney starring Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin (and hoping Matt Damon doesn’t morph into a painting).

Speaking of the great Nazi art heist, The Forger’s Spell by Edward Dolnick is the staggering true story of Hans van Meegeren, who painted fake Vermeers and ended up a folk hero. How? Because he sold them to the Nazis. Hah! Dolnick’s book is a thriller that poses many questions about art, not least of which is, How could anyone believe that these are Vermeers?