Summer Book List

I realized that the reason why I’ve been dying of heat and boredom for the past month of April is because this is the actually the first and longest summer I’ve had in four years. You see, when I was still in college, my course required us to take up summer classes as part of the curriculum. Because of this, I was so used to having only 2 or 3 weeks of pure vacation. But, as I realize on this very hot and slow Sunday afternoon, April just ended and I’ve still got another month to stay here in Batangas. Don’t get me wrong, I love being on vacation. But the thing is, there’s really not much stuff to do when you’re here in Batangas, save for almost-everyday trips to SM or weekly visits to the nail salon or to the spa. But aside from these things, what’s been saving me from the boredom and the heat here at home is reading. Yep, reading got me out. If you’ve been a faithful follower of Cougar Town, yes, this line is from this week’s episode. But it’s true, reading old and unread books has been keeping me alive so far. And truthfully, reading has been and still is pleasurable! I can’t believe I’ve lost this habit ever since high school and college started. I remember from my grade school to early high school stages I was reading a lot of Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew and Archie Comics back then. Hopefully, reading everyday won’t stop even after summer.

So anyway, lemme give you my Summer Book List! A bit of information though. When I said I loved reading when I was a child books that were for children and young adults, I didn’t say picking books from that genre has ended. :s A lot of the books below are actually from the Young Adults shelf. Haha! I can’t seem to grow out of these books. Eck.

Mia’s Summer Book List:

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

This is the fourth installment of the Percy Jackson series. Although this has been a really thrilling addition to the series, I still think the third one (The Titan’s Curse) is my ultimate favorite. In the Battle of the Labyrinth, however, more of the Percy-Annabeth love story develops. But of course, this love story is not complete without a little controversy as brought by the character of Rachel Dare. Plus, the ending really pushed me to go buy the last one.

2. The Mayor’s Tongue by Nathaniel Rich

I just picked this one up from a Book Sale branch in SM Naga. The cover looked nice, but what really caught me was the supposed love story between the main character and the lost girl he seeks. But as I read on, the love story was somehow just a catalyst to what the story was really about. I loved how the ending made so much and at the same time didn’t. I hate stories that end so weirdly. I know it’s supposed to give room for the reader to put his poetic cap on, but really, nothing feels better than understanding the ending of a good story. This could be one of those stories that professors assign to their first year literature students.

3. Is He? Or Isn’t He? by John Hall

Another young adult book I bought because the cover was very girly. Also, I don’t think I’ve read any book that includes a gay character. And as I find out, the story is actually the grade school version of Gossip Girl. It has all the drama, complications, high fashion of the upper east side – a girl and her gay best friend argue over a guy they both liked, but soon end up with two completely but equally gorgeous (as I imagined them in my mind) boys. It’s an okay read if you can put up with the maarte and sosyal conversations of these filthy rich kids.

4. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

The last of the Percy Jackson series! This was great, very vivid descriptions of the war in very understandable paragraphs. I love how Riordan did not lack on the number of deaths the demigods had to go through before the end of the war. For me, having this much reality of death can be very good for the targeted readers. I’d definitely recommend the whole Percy Jackson series to my friends; sneaking in a few pages of the books would be nice way to get out of the stress even for a while.

5. Light In Snow by Anita Shreve

As I say to those who have been asking me if this one was nice, I tell them it’s like a Tagalog romance (the ones our ate’s read) translated in English. Don’t get me wrong, I think those Tagalog romances do their job well which is to make the readers giggle in kilig. As for Light In Snow, I think it has the amount of drama it wished to deliver. A twelve year old girl and his father find an abandoned baby in the middle of the snowstorm. A few days later, the mother of the forsaken child goes to their house and thanks them. I think it’s something you read when you want to pass some time.

6. Para Kay B by Ricky Lee

I’ve been seeing this one in National Book Store for so long, but it was only this month that I decided to buy a Filipino novel and read it. I’ve read Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco, and I must say, that one was not very easy to understand. Para Kay B was funny, tragic, and definitely passionate. Five different stories all intertwined in the end, finished with a single ending. In the beginning, one of the characters, Lucas the writer said that there’s this quota on love. For every five people who fall in love, only one will win in the end. Others might just say fall in love at the wrong time, fall in love but never be reciprocated, fall in love on nothing or no one, or fall in love without having learned from the past. The words, maybe not the stories themselves, ring a bell in my head. Perhaps, all of us go through these phases of falling in love in different circumstances until we become that lucky one out of the five.

7. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

This has to be a classic, I think it already is, I’m not sure. But I had a rather hard time reading this, maybe because I’m not particularly fond of reading talking insects and farm animals. My sister might like this, but I’m not entirely sure if I did. it’s packed with a lot of morals though, so that should be good.

8. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

I’ve heard of this book from high school when one of my friends used this for their book review. I saw a remake of the novel into a film one time while I was looking for a DVD copy of a specific Korean drama, but I never got to finish the film nor was I able to read the book. So seeing a copy of Keyes’ novel at Book Sale made me buy it. This is probably the best one I’ve read from all the books I read this summer. Basically, it’s about a middle-aged man who’s been diagnosed of autism and was used as a guinea pig for an experiment that was supposed to make him smart(er). I love the idea of using progress reports to see how much Charlie Gordon changed from being super naïve to super smart and arrogant and back to well, being naïve. I don’t usually get emotional from reading, but I swear, this one really got me appreciating my course very much and what I’ll be doing in the future.

9. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Another Charlie story. This one though deals with a teenager who’s gone off track, almost completely. But what made me like this, just as much as I liked Flowers for Algernon was the technique of sort of writing for someone. I don’t what that’s called exactly, but I like it. Charlie here likes to write to a “friend” and tells the friend stories about Sam, boobies, and really good music. I also like that it’s a story about growing up. Growing up stories are on the same level as love stories for me, so this one has to be on my top must-read books.

10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Well, I’m not yet done reading this, but any Harry Potter book is a sure hit, right? I’m preparing myself for the movie and I just got past the ending of the first half of the movie. I feel so bad sleeping through almost half of the movie. I’m downloading it now, so I can better understand the second movie when it comes out on July.

I have a few more books here that I still have to read. I have another month of reading and another month of staying in Batangas. Oh well, back to my book.

I found out from Tumblr that it's apparently National Book Week somewhere and here's what you've got to do.

It’s national book week. The rules are: grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52 and post the 5th sentence. Don’t mention the title.

So for my fifth sentence: "It's long and blue -- you can't miss it." What's yours?