Follow Friday 6/24/2011

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer. This week's question is:

Q. In light of the Summer Solstice. Also known as Midsummer...let's talk about fairies. What is your favorite fairy tale or story that revolves around the fae? 

I've already talked about ten of my favorite fairy tales, but my most favorite?  The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen.  I just loved that story, and I found an animated film version of that and I just watched it again and again.

As for stories about fairies, my favorite would have to be Peter Pan, of course!

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Hello there again!  This is another hop that I have decided to participate in.  This is my first time on TGIF!  Yay!  Since I am always looking out for the weekend, it only follows that I should do this to really kick off the weekend fun. 

This Friday's Question:

Summer Love: Where is your ideal place to take a 

summer vacation & get lost in a book?

This is a very easy question.  I have a favorite place here in the Philippines, it's near Tagaytay and it's called Balay Indang Red Ginger Farm.  It's a garden retreat place that a friend of my mom owns and she often invites us to come over.  I loved lounging around the different houses and cottages there, and there were even beds outside under the trees!  I once brought a book there and it was such a great experience.  And the food is awesome, too :D

Here are some pictures:

The Watch Tower.  This is my preferred place to hang out and read.  You can go inside and find a really comfy bed and a rocking chair, as if asking you to take your pick.

The Main House

The Dining Area

The Stairs to the Dining Area

How it all looks from afar.

Another cottage where you can find some bean bags to sit or lie on.

Would you believe that this is part of a toilet and washroom?  I'm standing next to the toilet, of course.

For other pictures (not taken by me), you can check out Balay Indang (The Red Ginger Farm and Garden) on Flickr.

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So that's it, I hope you all have a great weekend, and happy reading to everyone!

Follow Friday 6/10/2011

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  This week's question is: 

Q. The magic book fairy pops out of your cereal box and says "you and your favorite character (from a book of course) can switch places!" Who are you going to switch with? 

If you have been following me for quite some time now, you would know that I have this sort-of-crush on Dash from Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, who's also my YA book hero.  So it follows that I would LOVE to switch places with Lily!  I also think her family is quite interesting, and it would be really great to take care of a dog again as my own dog had died years ago.  And Aunt Ida is such a charming character, I would love to finally meet her as I had this urge to hug her when I was reading about her in the book.

And Dash.  Dash!  I would be making snarky comments with him, eating frozen yogurt with him, reading the dictionary with him (he has no idea how much alike we are).  But I only have one question:  Would I be in my age now, or would I also be the same age as Lily is?  Since I don't know if Dash would like a relationship with an older woman (hee). 

However, I don't think my life would be much in Lily's eyes.  I have my brother, who never messes with me and gets into a fight with me.  I have my day job as a nurse - which might be interesting for Lily although she might get a little too tired, although would she be allowed to work in my place since she doesn't have my qualifications?  Well, if she won't be permitted to work in my stead, then she'll definitely find my life totally boring.

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Hello there again!  This is another hop that I have decided to participate in.  This is my first time on TGIF!  Yay!  Since I am always looking out for the weekend, it only follows that I should do this to really kick off the weekend fun.

 

This Friday's Question:

YA Saves: How do you feel about the "dark" books 

filling the YA shelves today?

I don't mind dark.  Really.  Because I had such a 'normal' (read: boring and predictable) teenage life that reading about tumultuous young adult lives fascinate me.  If you notice, most of the young adult books I own are contemporaries since I really like reading about real life, instead of made-up worlds - except if the made-up world is totally cool and suits my crazy taste.  'Dark' books take me into a world that shows there are people out there who do not have it easy like I did, and it helps me be more compassionate and understanding with other people, especially as in my line of work, I need to be constantly looking out for my patients.  I used to be a psych nurse so I am naturally drawn to books with mental illness, mental health problems which helped me understand more about the disorders that I encountered.  Even now that I have moved on to a different practice as a nurse, I still find these 'dark' books helpful, especially in dealing with teenage patients who are very difficult to get through especially after very traumatic incidences.  

The only thing that concerns me is the poor choice of book selections that some bookstores carry.  It's not the book's fault that it's dark and/or violent.  That's not the only book out there.  There are some light-hearted and morally-correct YA books too, it's just that maybe that particular book store did not choose to carry those titles since they know that paranormal and dark novels are all the rage now and more likely to sell.  To the mother who could not find a suitable book for her child, I would have asked her, "Why didn't you visit other book stores instead of immediately stereotyping the genre?"

 

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So that's it, I hope you all have a great weekend, and happy reading to everyone!

Follow Friday 6/4/2011

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

Amy from BackseatReader

And for the question: 

Q. What are you doing to prepare for an upcoming zombie apocalypse and/or the return of Mel Gibson to the silver screen? (Both of which could be terrifying.)

Since we're living in a building, I can't break the stairs to prevent the zombies from reaching us.  I plan to talk to the other people living here to cooperate.  We will destroy all the stairs until the fourth floor to keep them from reaching us and we will live in the upper levels of the building.  We have baseball bats and mallets on hand and will be getting some firearms soon.  We'll plant vegetables on plant beds on the rooftop to sustain our food supply and will also plant lots and lots of cactus for water supply.

As for Mel Gibson's return, I never watch television anyway, and I choose my movies carefully :D

This is a really hilarious question on Follow Friday, right?  It's amusing to read everybody's answers!

A great weekend to everyone!

Follow Friday 5/27/2011

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

 And for the question: 

Q. How many books do you read in a week? And in what format do you read them, or listen to them?

A:  I read 2 - 3 books, one digital copy and two print books.  I can't read much since I'm really busy at work.  When I get home, all I want to do is eat and sleep!

I'm so glad the week is finally over, and I can finally do both :D

 

Follow Friday 5/20/2011

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

 Ninja Girl from Ninja Girl Reads

And for the question: 

It's circle time. Time for us to open up and share. Can you tell us FIVE quirky habits or things about you? We all have them...

1. One mannerism I could never get rid of:  Raising and re-raising my eyebrows.  I can raise them one at a time and sometimes, I just get this urge to raise them for no reason whatsoever.
2. I seem to be really lucky with finding shoes.  I always get the pair I love most at huge discounts.  I hope I could do that with books too!
3. I don't like being put on the spot.  If you want me to do something last minute, at least wait for me to absorb the impact of what you are asking me, which takes about five seconds :D
4. I just crossed the line between Book Lover and Book Addict.  I recently bought The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman that was so staggeringly priced but it was the only copy I could ever find ever since deciding that I want to read it.
5. I am scared of heights.  I could not even ride a ferris wheel at theme parks, can't even look out the window of a fifth-floor building unit.

It's the weekend!  For a little weekend love, why don't we listen to this awesome music about it courtesy of the cute Glee guys:

Follow Friday 5/13/2011

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  

Yesterday, we were all rocked by Blogger's sudden 'Read-only' maintenance mode, losing some of our awesome posts (I lost my Book Suggestions and Third Sentence Thursday posts and they were both pretty cool).  But it's all good now, although that episode made Parajunkee so emotional the question for this week is:

And for the question: 

Q. The Blogger Apocalypse made me a little emotional. What is the most emotional scene in a book that you have read lately?

Obviously, Where She Went by Gayle Forman made me really emo, especially at the part towards the end where *WORDS HIDDEN TO PREVENT SPOILERS*

Also, I loved the middle-to-last part of One Day by David Nicholls (yes!  I've finally read it!), I was on the verge of crying when it came close to the ending since Dexter *NEXT WORDS THROWN IN THE TRASH TO PREVENT SPOILERS*

I would love to know your answers!  This might be possibly be a new way to increase my TBR which has again ballooned, remember that time when I said that I've finally finished my TBR?  Well, it's now piling up!

Have a great weekend!  And welcome blog hoppers and new followers!

Funky Music Follow Friday!

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

This week's question:

What is on your current playlist right now?

I listen to a lot of music, and I play them really loud throughout the house.  You can even hear it outside the house when you're just walking past.  Luckily, my mother and brother are cool about the songs I put on my playlist, and my brother actually uses them for his iPod.

1. Lazy Song by Bruno Mars
2. Rocketeer by Far East Movement
3. Never Gonna Leave This Bed by Maroon Five
4. Sara Smile by The Bird and the Bee
5. Gimme Sympathy by Metric
6. Chasing Pavements by Adele
7. Some awesome Glee music!!!

Those are the common songs you would find on my playlist, apart from others that I would include in the mix.  

Have an awesome weekend, because I am having a blast with my vacation, lounging around reading while listening to my favorite music.

Fabulous Follow Friday!

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

 

And for the question: 

Q. Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her. 

I have lots of people that I discuss books with in real life!  They are:

1. My Mom - she's sort of my 'pusher' because she was the one who really taught me to go read books.  In fact, she herself has about 100+ books in the house (most can be found in her room, the bookshelves in the living room, some in my room, and even some in my brother's), mostly romance novels.  Now, she is also reading some of my books and I sometimes act as the 'pusher.'  I just looked over to where she's seated right now and she is weeping over the ending of Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  Her  favorite YA book is Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers.
2. My brother - ever since I started reading YA, he began to get interested in reading more of my books as YA books are generally easy to read and very light.  When we were younger, he was not too into reading books because he gets bored too easily.  His favorite among my books is Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.
3. The Boyfriend - who not only buys me books, but also borrows some!  He mostly likes thrillers and murder mysteries but he recently read Room by Emma Donoghue and was amazed.
4. My two friends, Mimi and Ira - who love YA books so much.  They even visit this blog to check out new books I reviewed and to get an idea of what to read next.  There were times when they would go right up to me and say, "Hey, I read your newest review and I thought it was great!" or "Do you have any new books?"  It sometimes makes me think that majority of those 9,000 + page views of my blog were from them!  They both loved Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan.
5. When everyone else is not available, I always have ARGH with me.  Seriously speaking, my brother already thinks I have a split personality because of that cute monster.  The things a brother knows.  Oh wait, that's a book!

Have a great weekend!  And welcome to blog hoppers and new followers!

Freaky Follow Friday!

Freaky Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

And for the question:

Q. Do you judge a book by its cover?

I typically look up book reviews of a particular book I like.  But when I'm consumed with a desire to splurge on books when I go to bookstores, I am usually lured by the pretty covers so yes, I do judge a book by its cover.  That is why I've fallen victim to pretty-book-cover-bad-books a few times.  I do, however, also got books that did not have that cool a cover but was pretty awesome.  Like this one:

I'm not too crazy about that book cover, but I was pretty intrigued by the title and the synopsis so I went ahead and read it.  It was totally great!  Read my book review of Eating Fire and Drinking Water by Arlene J. Chai here to see what I mean.  Better yet, read the book yourself!

Have a great weekend ahead of you!

Fabulous Follow Friday

It's Friday again, and that means that the weekend is upon is, which is awesome because I badly need to rest after such a hectic week.  Patients, patients, and more patients tested my patience.  Fortunately for me - and lucky for them - my patience thread is quite long and I was able to pull off this week's work without too much fuss.  Is your week as busy as mine?

This week's featured blog:  

This week's question: 

 

Inspired by the inane Twitter trend of #100factsaboutme, give us five BOOK RELATED silly facts about you.

1. Every day that I wake up, I tell myself, "This is the day that I will stop visiting bookstores and start a month-long book buying ban."  I've been telling myself that since November of last year - nothing has happened so far.
2. I practically shove books at my younger brother and The Boyfriend.  They thank me after they've read whatever it was that I was peddling them.
3. My mother loves my books - even the YA ones.
4. No one from my workplace knows that I love to read and even have a book blog.
5. Contrary to typical conclusions, I did not get myopia from reading books in dim light.  I used to sneak out my mother's old prescription glasses to school and wear it during classes, not minding that my vision was shaky and twisted.  That's still book related, right?

Have a great Friday!

Fantastic Follow Friday!

It's Friday again!

I know I haven't been as active lately, even failing to do Follow Friday for a couple of weeks now, but I hope to catch up, especially on my reviews.  Nevertheless, the weekend is upon us and I'm psyched!

This week's featured blog:  

This week's question: 

Who are You the Boy/Girl, instead of You the Blogger?

Nina the girl has a younger brother whom she is very close with that they're almost each others' best friends.  Most people think that she and her mother are sisters and Nina the girl does not know whether she should be flattered or insulted, although when she was younger, she never looked anything like her mom.  Nina the girl is a bit too chicken and emotional - very different from Nina the nurse who never even bats an eyelid when a really hideous disease/wound/infection is discovered on a patient.  Very different also from Nina the blogger who would tell you outright which book was hideous or awesome.  Nina the girl is afraid of worms, heights, the dark, and basically everything that might suggest supernatural occurrences.  Nina the girl is in love with The Boyfriend who buys her books and gives her chocolates every time they're together.  She is also obsessed with the TV series Glee and thinks Mercedes and Quinn's voices are the best, and that Brittany and Mike Chang rocks.  

So that's Nina the girl for you, brought to you by Nina the blogger :D

Have a great Friday!

Follow the Fun Friday!

It's Friday again!

I know I haven't been as active lately, even failing to do Follow Friday for a couple of weeks now, but I hope to catch up, especially on my reviews.  Nevertheless, the weekend is upon us and I'm psyched!

This week's featured blog:  http://www.rubysreads.com/

This week's question: 

What is your favorite romance hero-type? Stereotype wise. Do you like the strong silent type or the brute macho man?

I love those sarcastic, funny, but strong guys!  So I guess it's not either of the above choices.  But I wouldn't mind him being a bit of a brute macho man, just retain the sarcasm and humor, because I really love to have a good laugh.  

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Because I have been unable to follow up on the previous week's Book Report, I would be doing more than a week's worth of recap and I hope you'll bear with me.  Anyway, I hope you would enjoy reading what I posted in the previous days leading to today.

Book Reviews:

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Plan B by Charnan Simon

Author Interview:

Awesome Author Interview with Elizabeth Atkinson who wrote I, Emma Freke

Features:

Teaser Tuesday from Evolution of Insanity by Haresh Daswani

10 Good Things on a Monday:  Ten Words that Sound Funny

10 Good Things on a Monday:  Ten Things that Make Me Smile

Blog Awards Received:

Memetastic Award from Cat's Thoughts

The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award from Lazy Girl Reads

Books Received:

Purchased:

Still Alice by Lisa Genova - reviewed

True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglas

Gift from The Boyfriend (I love him!):

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green - reviewed

The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Currently Reading:  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Upcoming Reviews:

Evolution of Insanity by Haresh Daswani

The Sweetheart Season by Karen Joy Fowler

True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglas

Upcoming Interview:

Awesome Author Interview with Alex Marestaing, writer of Izzy's Popstar Plan

Have a great weekend!

 

Crazy Follow Friday and Weekly Book Report

What a week huh?  I know you must be tired of reading of me complain every week how busy I am but it's true.  I don't know if mental illness has a peak and off peak season, but lately I've been swamped with more patients that I know what to do with, and although it's great that the place where I work would never run out of business at the number of patients it takes in daily, but it's very sad that a growing number of people are going - literally - crazy.  

But not to ruin your weekend madness, let's go on to celebrating our best day of the week, Friday!

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Parajunkee's Views.  This week's question:

What is your favorite subject in high school?

I will always remember my signature in the journals we had to complete way back:  "English is my favorite subject"  And it was, sort of.  I was never the grammar girl, but I loved the writing exercises, the stories we had to read, and the topics for discussion that our teacher came up with.  

Another subject I loved?  Math.  I totally sucked in Algebra, but I breezed through Calculus and Trigonometry.  It's strange considering that Algebra is supposed to be the foundation of all Math branches.  I also loved the Sciences, especially Chemistry.

Happy Friday to everyone, and don't go crazy!

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Here's a recap of this week's posts: 

Book Review:  

Back In The Game by Holly Chamberlin 

Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman 
Izzy's Popstar Plan by Alex Marestaing
                     
Memes:  
10 Good Things on a Monday:  Favorite Books of All Time  
Teaser Tuesday:  The Sweetheart Season by Karen Joy Fowler 
Third Sentence Thursday:  Izzy's Popstar Plan by Alex Marestaing

Miscellaneous Posts:
Well, Well, Well This is a Nice Surprise - one of my book reviews was featured in the author's blog!
Nina vs. ARGH:  First Person Narrative vs. Third Person Narration


New Books this Week:
  Purchased:
     Printed:   
                 Still Alice by Lisa Genova   For Review:
     From the author:   
                 Evolution of Insanity by Haresh Daswani

 

 

Follow Friday and Weekly Book Report

  

It's Friday again!  How time flies right?  It's horrible that it has been almost a week ago that I've been apologizing for not doing too much posts, and now another weekend is just around the corner and I'm going to apologize again.  This week, I only got around to doing two book reviews (might not be much of a big deal but I'm used to writing at least three every week), but at least I never missed any of the memes.  But enough rambling.  

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and this week's question is:

Who do you cheer for?

I'm not much into watching sports but I do like watching basketball sometimes.  In the NBA, I like the Miami Heat, mostly because LeBron James plays there now - my brother is a big fan and it rubs off me sometimes.  In local sports, I cheer for the Ginebra Kings in the PBA because that's my dad's favorite.  By myself, I'm not a big sports fan.

As for non-sports cheering, I cheer for the following:

The patients in the psychiatric ward where I work.
The bus drivers that I encounter daily.
The passengers I ride with everyday to go to and from work.
Ordinary people with extraordinary dreams.
Mothers
Fathers
People that find time to write a book despite heavy schedules.
Authors that churn out book after book.
Young readers.
And of course, to each and every one of us in the book  blogging community!


Cheers!

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Here's a recap of this week's posts: 

Awesome Author Interview with Alice Kuipers (Life on the Refrigerator Door and The Worst Thing She Ever Did - Lost for Words)

Book Review:  A Dangerous Dress by Julia Holden

                       Me, Dead Dad & Alcatraz by Chris Lynch

Memes:
     10 Good Things on a Monday:  Favorite Fairy Tales
     Teaser Tuesday:  Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwen Cready
     Third Sentence Thursday:  Me, Dead Dad & Alcatraz by Chris Lynch

Miscellaneous Posts:
     ARGH is now on Twitter
     Nina vs. ARGH:  Printed Books vs. Ebooks
     Does This Ever Happen to You?  Book Question
     Make Your Own Monster Bookmark


New Books this Week:
Purchased:
     Printed:  Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
 For Review:
     From NetGalley:  Plan B by Charnan Simon
                                The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards
                                Shine by Lauren Myracle